cc: "'Philip D. Jones'" date: Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:07:33 -0800 from: Ben Santer subject: Invitation to participate in the Wigley Symposium to: "Richels, Richard" Dear Rich, As you may know, Tom Wigley recently retired from his position as Senior Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Tom remains affiliated with NCAR, but increasingly will be shifting his base of operations to Australia and the University of Adelaide. In an illustrious scientific career spanning over 45 years, Tom has made major contributions to our understanding of past, present, and future environmental (particularly climatic) change. His contributions are unique in terms of both scope and impact. They have been made in such diverse areas as aqueous geochemistry, plume rise theory, the origin of life, dendroclimatology, the construction and analysis of observed surface temperature datasets, climate change detection and attribution, the development and application of energy balance models, integrated assessment, climate impacts, CO2 and climate stabilization, and geoengineering. He also has made significant scientific contributions to all four IPCC reports, and to a number of other national and international assessments of various aspects of climate science. Professor Phil Jones and I are organizing a one-day "Wigley Symposium" to honor Tom. This is an opportunity to thank Tom for advancing and enriching our field. It is also an opportunity to celebrate his past accomplishments, to look forward to new ones, and to wish him well for the future. We hope you will be able to attend the Symposium, which will take place at NCAR on June 19, 2009, immediately following the annual NCAR Community Climate System Modeling Workshop in Breckenridge. With assistance from Tom, Phil Jones and I have drafted a program for the Symposium (see attachment). The intent is to have a series of 14 thirty-minute lectures on various aspects of climate science and the other areas where Tom has worked. Ideally, each talk should incorporate some discussion of Tom's contributions. At this stage, we'd like to inquire whether you would be available to attend the Wigley Symposium on June 19th and present a talk entitled: "The challenge of stabilizing climate" You obviously have full freedom to come up with a more creative and/or intriguing title! We'd be grateful if you could let us know by January 31 or sooner whether you will be able to attend and give a talk at the Symposium. With best regards, Ben Santer and Phil Jones (P.S.: There will be some funding to cover the cost of a Symposium dinner on the evening of June 19th. Save in exceptional cases, however, most Symposium participants will have to pay their own travel and accommodation expenses). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Benjamin D. Santer Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory P.O. Box 808, Mail Stop L-103 Livermore, CA 94550, U.S.A. Tel: (925) 422-3840 FAX: (925) 422-7675 email: santer1@llnl.gov ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Attachment Converted: "c:\eudora\attach\Wigley_Agenda53.doc"