Mann to receive Hans Oeschger Medal from European Geosciences Union

Credit: Penn State Michael Mann

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Michael Mann, professor of meteorology and geosciences and director, Earth System Science Center, Penn State, was awarded the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geosciences Union.

The medal was established in 2001 in recognition of the scientific achievements of Hans Oeschger to honor outstanding scientists whose work is related to climate: past, present and future.

Mann’s research involves the use of theoretical models and observational data to better understand Earth’s climate system. He is best known for the "hockey stick," a chart he and his co-authors published in 1999 using proxy climate data such as tree-rings and ice cores to estimate temperatures over the past thousand years. The hockey stick demonstrated that temperatures had risen with the increase in industrialization and use of fossil fuels and is the subject of Mann’s new book, "The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars," due out in early 2012.

Mann received his undergraduate degrees in physics and applied math from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.S. in physics and a Ph.D. in geology and geophysics from Yale University. He was a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third Scientific Assessment Report and has served as chair for the National Academy of Sciences "Frontiers of Science." In 2007 he shared the Nobel Prize with other IPCC lead authors.

He will receive his award during the General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union, April 22-27, 2012, in Vienna, Austria. Mann will also present a Medal Lecture during the conference.