Scientists

Biographical Information

Dr. Jonathan Overpeck

Dr. Jonathan Overpeck is the Director of the Institute for the Study of Planet Earth (ISPE) at the University of Arizona, where he is also a Professor of Geosciences and a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences. He also holds a courtesy appointment in the College of Law. He received his undergraduate degree in Geology with honors from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, and his advanced degrees (MSc and PhD in Geological Sciences) from Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island. After graduation, Dr. Overpeck moved to Columbia University where he spent 5 years as a research scientist at Columbia's well-known Lamont-Doherty Geological (now "Earth") Observatory. During this period, Overpeck built a strong grants-supported research program while working extensively on modeling aspects of climate and vegetation change with colleagues at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (also in New York). He also began his extensive research around the globe with expeditions to the North Atlantic and Indian Oceans, the Arctic and the Midwest United States.

In 1990, Dr. Overpeck was hired by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Boulder, Colorado to establish and build their Paleoclimatology Program. While there he also led the founding of the World Data Center for Paleoclimatology, and expanded his global paleoclimate research program as a Fellow at the University of Colorado's Institute For Arctic and Alpine Research. Over the next nine years, Dr. Overpeck's research expanded to include projects in Greenland, Monsoon Asia (Tibet and Nepal) and West Africa (Ghana). In 1999, Overpeck was recruited by the University of Arizona where he currently serves. His primary responsibility is leading the coordination of environmental science and society programs across the University of Arizona campus.

Dr. Overpeck's academic specialty areas include: climate dynamics (including paleoclimatology), climate and ecosystem interaction, climate and society interaction, and environmental decision-support. He has written over 100 publications and has been a leader in multiple national and international science initiatives, including the on-going United Nations-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment. Dr. Overpeck has been awarded numerous honors, including the US Department of Commerce Bronze and Gold Medals, the Walter Orr Roberts award of the American Meteorological Society, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Dr. Overpeck has taught courses in climate, geosciences and biosciences. He lives in Tucson, Arizona with his wife Julia Cole who is also a University of Arizona Professor and climate scientist. They have two boys and a dog named Rosie. Much of Dr. Overpeck's motivation to help communicate science to society is guided by his hope that his boys will inherit an Earth as beautiful, functioning and prosperous as he was born into.

Dr. Andrew Comrie

Dr. Andrew Comrie is a Professor of Geography & Regional Development and a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Arizona. He is also Associate Vice President for Research, Dean of the Graduate College and Director of Graduate Interdisciplinary Programs at the University of Arizona. Dr. Comrie received his BSc in Geography, BSc Honours in Atmospheric Science and his MSc in Environmental and Geographical Science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He received his PhD in Geography with a specialization in climatology from The Pennsylvania State University.

In 1992, Dr. Comrie moved to Tucson and the University of Arizona. Over the course of his career at the University, Dr. Comrie has built an interdisciplinary research program in climate variability and change, with particular emphasis on the connections between climate and human environmental issues including air quality, health and environmental policy. His research has been funded by many agencies including the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This support sustains graduate students and postdoctoral scientists through his Applied Climatology for Environment and Society (ACES) research laboratory.

Dr. Comrie has published widely in specialized and interdisciplinary international scientific journals. He maintains an ongoing research program to better understand the summer and winter climate variability of the Southwest United States, as well as climate and human interactions with air pollution, wildfire and diseases. Through his current administrative position, Dr. Comrie provides academic leadership for graduate education at the University of Arizona, including oversight and stewardship of the Graduate Interdisciplinary Programs. He also fosters the research, scholarship and creative activities of the faculty and connects those activities to the community. Dr. Comrie has served on many national-level science committees and as editor or editorial board member for a number of scientific journals. He is currently Editor for the Americas of the International Journal of Climatology. At the University of Arizona, Dr. Comrie has been a visiting fellow at the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, and a recipient of a Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Institute Research Professorship.

Dr. Comrie has taught university courses in climate and geography, and he has trained numerous masters and doctoral students. He lives in Tucson, Arizona with his family, surrounded by the vibrant culture and natural beauty of the Sonoran Desert and the North American monsoon every summer. His inspiration to share environmental understanding and communicate climate science was forged while growing up and traveling in Africa. That inspiration has been strengthened by his exploration of the human and natural contrasts of living in the Southwest.

Dr. Susan Beck

Dr. Susan Beck is a Professor of Geosciences and the Department Head for Geosciences at the University of Arizona. Dr. Beck received her BSc in Geology from the University of Utah where she attended on an athletic scholarship and was a member of an NCAA national championship ski team. She also earned her MSc in Geology from Utah, mapping an ancient fault zone in the Wasatch Mountains. This work turned her interest to young faults and earthquakes and she received her PhD in Geophysics with a specialization in Seismology from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Dr. Beck spent 2 1/2 years at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory working on forensic seismology and earthquakes before accepting a faculty position at the University of Arizona in 1990.

Dr. Beck has an active research program in earthquake seismology and works on issues related to understanding great global earthquakes, mountain building, and active tectonics in the U.S. and around the world. Dr. Beck has published widely in specialized and interdisciplinary international scientific journals. Most notable is her work on South American earthquakes, the deep structure and tectonic evolution of the Andes, and recent work on the North Anatolian Fault in Turkey, where some of this century's most devastating earthquakes have occurred. As part of her research, she and her students have deployed hundreds of temporary seismic stations in the Western U.S., Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Turkey.

Through her current administrative position, Dr. Beck provides academic leadership for the Department of Geosciences, one of the top-ten Earth Science departments in the country. Dr. Beck has served on many national-level science committees, including the National Academy of Sciences, the International Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS), and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. In addition to her research and administrative duties, Dr. Beck teaches university courses in active tectonics, earthquake seismology, and geologic disasters. Susan grew up hiking and skiing in the Colorado Front Range and the Wyoming Wind Rivers, where she learned to appreciate the natural beauty and the lure of geology in the mountain west. When she is not traveling to her study areas, she lives in the foothills of the Tucson Mountains in Tucson, Arizona with her husband and two yellow labs.