As part of Earthstock, Stony Brook University’s celebration of Earth Day, a special awards ceremony was held to honor the four SoMAS professors who, as members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.
Stony Brook University President Shirley Strum Kenny and Provost Eric Kater presented Robert Cess, Distinguished Professor Emeritus; Professors Edmund Chang and Marvin Geller, and Associate Dean of SoMAS Minghua Zhang with plaques to honor their achievement.
The event began with a panel presentation by Cess, Chang, Zhang, and Earthstock Keynote Speaker Hans-Peter Plag of the University of Nevada, Reno. Panel moderator Howard Schneider, Dean of the School of Journalism, guided the discussion which covered the contributions of the IPCC, issues of climate change, and the role of scientists in shaping public policy.
While the IPCC is composed of more than 2,000 natural and social scientists from around the world, SoMAS faculty played an active role in the group’s Nobel-honored 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.” Robert Cess was a lead author on the first IPCC report; Minghua Zhang was a contributing author of the second IPCC report; and Edmund Chang was a contributing author of the May 2007 report, which predicted that temperatures may increase by 3.2 to 7.2 degrees by the year 2100 and that sea levels may rise 7 to 23 inches.
In the panel discussion, Plag praised his distinguished colleagues and noted the significance of awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to a scientific organization.
“For the first time it was acknowledged that science has to do with peace on earth,” said Plag, “and that climate change might be a reason we end up losing the peace we’re trying to keep.”
