Potsdam,
21 Apr. 2005
Martin Claussen, climatologist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Professor at the University of Potsdam, will be awarded the Milutin Milankovic Medal of the European Geophysical Union (EGU). He receives the prestigious award for his pioneering work using interactively coupled atmosphere-biome models and Earth system models of intermediate complexity to explore the role of vegetation dynamics in paleoclimate.
By combining models of atmospheric dynamics and vegetation, Claussen was the first to explicitly simulate Charney's desert-albedo feedback in an interactively coupled atmosphere-biome model. Claussen demonstrated that atmosphere-vegetation interaction is one of the most important processes to explain paleoclimatic changes in Northern Africa, in particular the expansion and retreat of the Sahara in the course of glacial-interglacial cycles. One of his internationally recognised successes was the simulation of the "green Sahara" in the early Holocene.
Martin Claussen has been an active member of several scientific committees of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and president of the German Meteorological Society, where he has stimulated the dialogue between climate modellers and paleoclimatologists.
The prize will be conferred at the EGU conference in Vienna, April 26.
The EGU press release can be found on the internet site of the European Geosciences Union at:
http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/awards/medallists/_2005/milutin_milankovic.html
More information about Martin Claussen can be found at:
http://www.pik-potsdam.de/~claussen/
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Martin Claussen, email martin.claussen@pik-potsdam.de, phone +49/331/288-2522
Office administrator: Johann Grüneweg, email johann.grueneweg@pik-potsdam.de, phone +49/331/288-2532
