Richard B. Alley

Evan Pugh University Professor of Geosciences. Glaciologist and climate scientist who used ice cores from Greenland to demonstrate that climate can change abruptly. Contributed to understanding ice stream mechanics and subglacial sediment deformation processes. Involved with Greenland summit ice core drilling. Chair of National Academy of Sciences study, Abrupt Climate Change: Inevitable Surprises (2002), advised U.S. government on research activities regarding climate surprises. Wrote The Two-Mile Time Machine: Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future (2000; winner of the National Phi Beta Kappa Science Book Award), and Earth: The Operators' Manual (2011), made into 3-hour PBS miniseries of same name.