Press Release

NASA Astronaut Piers Sellers to Speak April 18 at Global Climate Conference for High School Students

By SpaceRef Editor
March 24, 2008
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FORT COLLINS – Colorado State University’s Center for Multiscale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes will sponsor on April 18 the second annual Colorado Global Climate Conference for high school students – featuring NASA astronaut Piers Sellers – at Rocky Mountain High School in Fort Collins.

The goal of the conference is to educate, inspire and empower students to be informed about global climate issues. Topics include the science of climate change, writing about climate change, making changes on the local school level, green building, alternative energy, careers in climate change and ecosystem impacts.

Pre-registration cost of the conference is $20 per participant for adults and students in grades 9-12. Payments should be postmarked no later than March 31. Registration after March 31 is $25 at the event. For complete registration information, go to http://www.cmmap.org/cmmap/scienceEd/cgcc08/.

The event will be from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. April 18 at Rocky Mountain High School, 1300 W. Swallow Road in Fort Collins, with the high school’s Environmental Club. Other conference contributors include CSU’s Little Shop of Physics, the Poudre School District, Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shop of Fort Collins and Clif Bar. Gov. Bill Ritter has written a letter to students in support of the conference as part of his Education Initiative on Climate Change and his Climate Action Plan – an effort to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the state by 2020.

Sellers, the keynote speaker of the conference, joined NASA in 1996 and has logged 559 hours in space on two shuttle missions including six spacewalks. Before joining the astronaut corps, Piers worked on research into how the Earth’s biosphere and atmosphere interact. His work involved computer modeling of the climate system, satellite remote sensing studies and field work using aircraft, satellites and ground teams in places such as Kansas, Russia, Africa, Canada and Brazil.

The conference is the second by the Center for Multiscale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes, a $19 million National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center based in the Department of Atmospheric Science. The center, which is directed by Professor David Randall, aims to build climate models that will more accurately depict cloud processes and improve climate and weather forecasting for scientists around the world. Last year’s event drew hundreds of high school students and featured a keynote speech by acclaimed scientist Susan Solomon, co-chairwoman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

SpaceRef staff editor.