The cycle of lectures of the Institute for Advanced Studies Balkanski-Panitza aims to present to the wide audience leading researchers from Bulgaria and abroad who work in various academic fields (humanitarian and social sciences, science, engineering). Among the lectors are distinct figures from the civil society, means of mass communication and business with respect to the education and science issues in Bulgaria. The lectures aim to bridge the different fields of the scientific knowledge and to contribute to the enrichment of the academic life in Bulgaria in accordance to the mission of the Institute.
What: Climate Change: The Scientific Evidence by Dr. Yves Balkanski
When: 11 June 2014, 19:00
Where: Sofia University Rectorate, lecture hall 224 (hall America for Bulgaria)
During this lecture Dr. Yves Balkanski will review the recent scientific evidence that links human activities to climate change. He will focus on changes in atmospheric composition and discuss the main gases and particles that affect the Earth radiation budget. He will show what the climate records of the last 800.000 years teach us how the main atmospheric components have varied over the last 8 glacial – interglacial periods and we will see that human activities have produced changes at an unprecedented speed over this period.
In this lecture Dr. Yves Balkanski will rely on the collective work of several hundred scientists (referred to as IPCC: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) that helps governments assess how the atmosphere, the ocean and land surfaces are modified since the preindustrial time (see http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/index.shtml). He will also explain how we attempt to project climate changes over the three next centuries and give the principles on which we construct Earth System Models to quantify such changes. A large part of the discussion will be on the degree of uncertainty we have on these projections and how we might develop strategies to limit such uncertainties.
Dr. Yves Balkanski (Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, Gif-sur-Yvette, France) has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles. A Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from Harvard Universityin 1991, he has been working for now more than 20 years on global aerosol modelling. After directing a group of 8 scientists working on tropospheric chemistry, he coordinated a European project MINATROC (MINeral Aerosol and TROpospheric Chemistry, 5th FP). His role entails the implementation in the IPSL Earth System Model the aerosol interactions with clouds and the treatment of heterogeneous chemistry on aerosol surfaces. He will investigate the role of aerosol radiative forcings and will also help analyze the feedbacks involved. Yves bas been an editor of the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics for more than 12 years.