"Melting Landscapes: How Climate Change is Affecting Ice Under the Arctic" is a Free Public Lecture on 20 February

A free public event, titled "Melting Landscapes: How Climate Change is Affecting Ice Under the Arctic," will feature Michael Gooseff, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Penn State, on 20 February 2010 in room 100 Thomas Building on the Penn State University Park campus. The presentation is the fifth of six events in the 2010 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, a free minicourse for the general public with the theme "Water: The Next Frontier." No registration is required. The minicourse takes place on six consecutive Saturday mornings from 11:00 a.m. to about 12:30 p.m. in Thomas Building.

Gooseff will describe how glaciers and permafrost in the Arctic are melting as a result of the Earth's warming. He will discuss how these changes affect the world's water resources in the Arctic and in the rest of the planet, and he will talk about how the consequences of changing Arctic hydrologic systems could change river networks and the atmosphere worldwide.

Gooseff's research focuses on the relationships between physical hydrological processes and ecological processes. In particular, he studies streams and the interactions of streams with surrounding groundwater and watersheds. He and his students conduct field research and develop numerical models to investigate how natural systems work. They work with interdisciplinary teams of scientists, including ecologists, microbial ecologists, biogeochemists, and geomorphologists, to tackle complex research questions that require coordinated investigations involving all these specialties. His research in both the Arctic and the Antarctic includes studies of the responses of these critical regions to climate change.

Gooseff joined the Penn State faculty in 2007 as an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering. From 2004 to 2007 he was an assistant professor at the Colorado School of Mines, and from 2002 to 2004 he was an assistant professor at Utah State University. His service to the science community includes membership in the American Geophysical Union, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, and the North American Benthological Society. He is a member of the editorial board of the journal Eos, of the American Geophysical Union, an organization that he also serves as a member of its Water Quality Technical Committee and as secretary of its Hydrology Section.

Gooseff earned a Ph.D. degree and a master's degree in civil engineering at the University of Colorado in 2001 and 1998, respectively. He received a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1996.

The Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science is a program of the Penn State Eberly College of Science. The 2010 Frontiers of Science series is sponsored jointly by the Penn State Eberly College of Science and the Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment. For more information or access assistance, contact the Eberly College of Science Office of Media Relations and Public Information by telephone at (814) 863-0901 or by e-mail at science@psu.edu. More information about the Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, including archived recordings of previous lectures, is on the web.