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Richard C. J. Somerville
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Distinguished Professor
CAS,CRD
University of California, San Diego
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Expertise and Research Interests
Richard Somerville is a theoretical meteorologist whose research interests include geophysical fluid dynamics, thermal convection, computational methods, predictability, atmospheric modeling, numerical weather prediction, radiative transfer, cloud physics, and climate.
Other Expertise
Richard Somerville is a Coordinating Lead Author in Working Group I for the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which will appear in 2007. See http://www.ipcc.ch.
In addition to his work as a researcher, Richard Somerville is active in science education and outreach, beginning with teaching and advising graduate students at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego. See http://www.sio.ucsd.edu.
He is the author of an award-winning and critically acclaimed popular book, The Forgiving Air: Understanding Environmental Change (University of California Press). This book, written accessibly for the general public, covers leading global environmental issues such as stratospheric ozone loss and anthropogenic climate change, together with energy, population and policy implications.
He has also participated extensively in teacher professional development, given Congressional testimony, briefed U. N. climate change negotiators, and advised Federal agencies on education and outreach. He chaired the Geoscience Education Working Group of the National Science Foundation, which produced the report, Geoscience Education: A Recommended Strategy, available at http://www.geo.nsf.gov/adgeo/geoedu/97_171.htm.
Richard Somerville comments frequently on climate and environmental issues for the print and broadcast media. The transcript of a Public Broadcasting System television interview is at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/warming/debate/somerville.html.
He lectures widely to both scientific audiences and the general public. A web video version of a one-hour non-technical lecture given at the University of California, San Diego is available at http://webcast.ucsd.edu:8080/ramgen/UCSD_TV/5378CA~1.RM.
Future Research
Richard Somerville's ongoing research projects are in climate and climate change. He works with a small group of collaborators to advance our theoretical understanding of key physical processes in the climate system. Their primary focus at present and in the immediate future is on the role of clouds, cloud-radiation interactions, and cloud feedbacks in climate. The research involves using measurements from field observational programs, together with single-column models and other theoretical tools, to test and improve the ways in which computer simulations of the global climate represent the effects of clouds. Specific areas of interest include stochastic approaches to cloud parameterizations, the effects of cloud microphysics on cloud radiative properties, the characteristics of clouds in polar regions, and the role of dust and other particles in influencing clouds and climate.
Honors and Awards
Fellow (elected 1987), American Meteorological Society
Fellow (elected 1993), American Association for the Advancement of Science
Listed in Who's Who in America,
Walter Orr Roberts Lectureship in Interdisciplinary Sciences (1999), American Meteorological Society
Louis J. Battan Author's Award (2000), American Meteorological Society
Distinguished Lecturer (2002-2003), Sigma Xi
Distinguished Professor (appointed 2004), University of California, San Diego