Jonathan Overpeck

Other articles by Dan Sorenson:

Death of pacifist M.D. took a Tucson original Students learn the power of the vote Baby's death spurs dad to do something positive Afghan visit, TSA ordeal for UA freshman Pumpkin humongous Study on bias in city contracts urges changes $3M Pima pound redo to be 1st phase of plan for future new facility Residents have mixed feelings on tree's demise Reversing cardiac disease West Nile confirmed in Pima woman

Trades/Construction
Water Tec
Dispatcher Driver/Transportation
DRIVERS Construction
ROR Construction
Residential Framing Carpenters Administrative & Professional
JEWISH FEDERATION
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Administrative & Professional
AVIVA, Inc
Executive Director Health Care
PAINTED HILLS PEDIATRICS
LPN, RN, MA Health Care
RLM Services, Inc
Pharmacist

Jonathan Overpeck, a leading University of Arizona climate scientist and co-author of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize-winning U.N. climate-change report, is a finalist for a position at the University of Wisconsin.

Overpeck, one of the lead authors on the April 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's report linking atmospheric greenhouse gas increases to human activity, is director of the UA's Institute for Study of Planet Earth.

He is one of two finalists for the position of director of the larger Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the university in Madison.

Overpeck's office staff said that he was out sick Monday.

UA associate professor of geosciences Julia Cole, an ISPE faculty member and Overpeck's wife, confirmed he was in the running for the Wisconsin job.

Cole said Overpeck didn't want to "negotiate in public."

"We don't want to make the U (University of Arizona) look like they're not trying to help us.

"We're not looking to get out of here. We're not looking to leave. We're looking to see what are the opportunities. We're trying to do this as constructively as possible. We are just trying to find the best place to do the work . . . ," Cole said.

ISPE is part of the UA's interdisciplinary umbrella organization, Arizona Research Labs. ARL Director Michael Cusanovich and UA College of Science Dean Joaquin Ruiz were unavailable for comment.

Overpeck's IPCC group co-authors shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Price with former Vice President Al Gore, the Nobel Web site said, "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."

The opportunity did not come as a surprise to Travis Huxman, a UA associate professor of ecology & evolutionary biology and director of the university's Biosphere 2 facility.

"It's like major league baseball teams. People compete for him," Huxman said, referring to Overpeck's higher profile since being associated with the Nobel.

"To be very blunt, Pecks are not common," Huxman said. "We are very lucky to have Peck – he's like a magnet to get other people to come here and do their science.

"His participation in the IPCC is a commitment by a scientist to distill research down to a form that can be used by policymakers," said Huxman. "That's something he has done for our community that is really important."

And he said Overpeck's connection to the Nobel Prize is definitely attractive to graduate students and researchers considering a place to do their studies and research.

Overpeck is expected to visit the Madison campus in two weeks for interviews with the university's chancellor and provost, and meetings with faculty and students, said Tom Sinclair, public information manager for the Nelson Institute.

The other finalist is Robert Costanza, director of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont in Burlington.

Sinclair said there is no firm date for naming the director.

The Nelson Institute, like the UA's Institute for the Study of the Planet Earth, is an interdisciplinary group using mostly faculty and researchers from other departments and colleges within their universities.

The Nelson Institute has about 150 affiliated faculty members, but 15-20 core faculty working directly for the institute, according to Sinclair. He said the overall faculty and staff total is about 200 people.

The Nelson Institute has about 200 graduate and 200 undergraduate students. There are three graduate-degree programs offered by the Nelson Institute. Those in the Nelson Institute's 27-credit undergraduate certificate program major in other, but related, disciplines, Sinclair said.

More than 120 faculty members from other UA departments and colleges have ISPE appointments.

The UA lost out on its last Nobel Prize-connected scholar, economics professor Vernon Smith, who was awarded the 2002 Nobel after he left UA to join the faculty at George Mason University in Virginia.

On StarNet: For more education-related stories, visit azstarnet.com/education.