Faculty and Student Teams Program

Understanding Climate Change Impacts

Requesting applications from science or engineering faculty members at institutions serving students underrepresented in science, engineering, mathematics and technology to work on the following projects at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

Project Description

The IPCC AR4 (IPCC, 2007) has resulted in a wider acceptance of climate change. However, climate modelers struggle to develop precise predictions of extreme events. In addition, the most significant knowledge gap relevant for policymakers and stakeholders remains the inability to produce credible estimates of local to regional scale climate extremes and change impacts. Uncertainties in process studies, climate models, and associated spatio-temporal downscaling strategies, may be quantified and reduced by statistical evaluations. A similar treatment for extreme events may require novel statistical approaches and improved downscaling. Climate change projections are based on future scenarios, for which quantitative assessments, let alone reduction, of uncertainties may be difficult. Regional impacts need to account for additional uncertainties in the estimates of anticipatory risks and damages, whether on the environment, infrastructures, economy or society. The cascading uncertainties from scenarios, to models, to downscaling, and finally to impacts, make costly decisions difficult to justify. This problem grows acute if credible attributions need to be made to causal drivers or policy impacts. This project proposes a comprehensive treatment for uncertainty in the context of climate change related extreme events and impacts at local to regional scales. New capabilities will be developed to assess and reduce uncertainties, which will not only improve climate process models, but also produce credible information for better decisions and integrated assessments.

Laboratory Contact:  Auroop R. Ganguly, gangulyar@ornl.gov

Applicants’ Responsibilities and Relationship to Project

Applicants will receive support under the Department of Energy Faculty Student Team Research Program (FaST) to work collaboratively with the project research team at the Laboratory for up to 10 weeks during the summer of 2010. The exact appointment period in the time frame of June to August will be scheduled by mutual agreement between the host divisions at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the successful applicant.  Faculty will be expected to identify two to three students from their campuses to participate in the FaST program. The faculty member will provide some mentorship to students during the summer research activities. The faculty and students must participate as a group and serve their appointments concurrently.  It is expected that the faculty member and the students become an integral part of the research team working on this project and that opportunities for continued collaboration may be identified.

Qualifications of Ideal Candidates
Motivation and fundamentals are more important than specific qualifications or skills. The following are examples of relevant disciplines and skill sets: Civil and Environmental Engineering; Climate Sciences; Hydrology and Water Resources; Statistics; GIS. In addition, mathematicians (e.g., computational statisticians), physicists (e.g., nonlinear dynamicians) and/or computer scientists (e.g., data miners) are strongly encouraged to consider joining the project team.

The successful candidate will receive a stipend based on the academic salary, travel expenses to and from the Laboratory, and a housing allowance. Students recommended by the faculty member for participation in the program will receive a stipend of $425/week for each week at the Laboratory, plus a housing allowance, and reimbursement for transportation expenses to and from the ORNL.  Funds are provided for this program from the US Department of Energy, Office of Science in partnership with the National Science Foundation, from ORNL, and from other sources.

See Financial Information.