Each year UCRC brings in one high profile speaker to deliver the Anthony J. Brazel Urban Climate Lecture.
We seek leaders in the field of urban climate science and policy who can articulate key findings and trends in their field to an audience of scientists, students and community stakeholders. We are able to offer this lecture series because of the vision and support of Anthony Brazel, emeritus professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning and Senior Global Futures Scientist at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory®.
2023 (Apr 20): Harinda Joseph S. Fernando
Notre Dame University presented the Distinguished Annual Brazel Lecture. The presentation was “From Climate Change to Pedestrian Comfort.” The lecture took place from 5-6 p.m. MST at COOR 174
2022 (Apr 19): Karen Seto
Dr. Karen Seto is the Frederick C. Hixon Professor of geography and urbanization science at the Yale School of the Environment. She is an urban and land change scientist whose central research focus is how urbanization will affect the planet. A geographer by training, she integrates remote sensing, field interviews and modeling methods to study urbanization and land change, forecast urban growth and examine the environmental consequences of urban expansion.
Professor Seto is co-leading the urban mitigation chapter for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 6th Assessment Report and co-lead the same chapter for the IPCC 5th Assessment Report. She has received numerous awards for her scientific contributions. She is the recipient of a NASA New Investigator Program Award, a National Science Foundation Career Award, and the Outstanding Contributions to Remote Sensing Research Award from the American Association of Geographers. She was named an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow in 2009. She is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
About the talk: The urban share of global greenhouse gas emissions is substantive and continues to increase. At the same time, cities are disproportionately affected by climate change due to their concentration of people, economic activities and assets. This talk will discuss key findings from the recently approved 6th Assessment Report of the IPCC on how future climate change is likely to affect cities and how urban areas can contribute to solving the climate crisis.
2021 (Mar 24): J. Marshall Shepherd
Professor and Director of the University of Georgia Atmospheric Sciences Program, Dr. Shepherd is a leading international expert in weather and climate and a past President of the American Meteorological Society. Dr. Shepherd is also the host of The Weather Channel’s award-winning show: Weather Geeks, a pioneering Sunday talk podcast/show and a contributor to Forbes magazine. He has won many prestigious awards for his research and public engagement, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the American Geophysical Union Climate Communication Prize, the American Meteorological Society’s Brooks and Helmut Landsberg awards and the Association of American Geographers Media Achievement Award—to name a few. He was recently inducted into the National Academy of Engineering. His presentation for the Brazel lecture focused on the role that cities play in affecting precipitation events.
2019 (Nov 7): Dev Niyogi
Dr. Dev Niyogi, Professor of Agronomy, Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at Purdue University. Dr. Niyogi is the Chair of the American Meteorological Society’s Board on the Urban Environment and is also a member of the advisory board of the International Association for Urban Climate. He is also the outgoing State Climatologist for the state of Indiana. His research spans a number of urban climate related fields, including urban influences on precipitation and drivers of urban expansion. He has over 150 peer-reviewed publications for his highly interdiscipinary and international research. His presentation for the Brazel Lecture explored integrating emerging technologies from video gaming and machine learning in the design of future climate-resilient cities.
2018 (Feb 8): Sue Grimmond
Dr. Sue Grimmond, Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, at the University of Reading, in the UK is past president of the International Association of Urban Climate and past lead expert for the World Meteorological Organization on Urban and Building Climatology. She is on editorial boards of multiple key journals in our field. In 2006, she was elected Fellow of the American Meteorological Society. She has numerous additional awards, with 2009 being a particularly banner year for her in which she received both the Helmut E. Landsberg Award from the American Meteorological Society and the Luke Howard Award from the International Association for Urban Climate. Her presentation discussed the role and potential for integrated services for weather and climate in the urban environment.