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UMaine Professor to Receive Honorary Doctorate at the University of Stockholm

Paul A. Mayewski, professor in the University of Maine Institute for Quaternary Studies and Dept. of Geological Sciences, will receive an Honorary Doctorate from Stockholm University in a ceremony September 29. The degree will be conferred by the faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of Stockholm University.

Mayewski, who lives in Castine, directs the newly created Climate Studies Center at UMaine in the Sawyer Environmental Research Center. Before coming to UMaine this summer, he was director of the Climate Change Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.

He is internationally known for pioneering contributions to the understanding of historic changes in atmospheric chemistry and climate change through the study of ice cores. Ice core records provide the most direct, detailed and complete measure of past climate change. Scientists use them to create a base line for helping to decipher the influence of human activity on climate. Eventually, the records can help to predict future climates.

The modern era of climate is complicated by the combined influences of natural and human activities. Hence, understanding and predicting climate poses an immense challenge to scientists.

Mayewski is a member of the Explorers Club whose 3,000 members include Sir Edmund Hillary, Robert Ballard and Sally Ride. The Club bestowed its Citation of Merit on Mayewski in 1995 in recognition of his contributions to the field of climatology. He is also a fellow of the American Geophysical Union. Only 0.1 percent of AGU members are elected to fellowship annually. A mountain in Antarctica was named for Mayewski by the Board of Geographic Names.

Mayewski has lead more than 30 expeditions to the Antarctic, Arctic, the Himalyas and the Tibetan Plateau. On his forthcoming expedition this winter, he will once again lead the International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition. The Museum of Science in Boston will follow the expedition through an exhibit at the museum, daily updates from the field team and a Web site (www.secretsoftheice.org). Mayewski's Honorary Doctorate will be presented in the Stockholm City Hall. He returns to the Antarctic a month later.

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