DUSTIN BLEIZEFFER Star-Tribune energy reporter | Posted: Saturday, October 13, 2007 12:00 am
Two University of Wyoming professors are among the group of scientists that will share the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore.
Along with Gore, the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday named the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The IPCC is a collection of more than 2,000 natural and social scientists from around the globe.
Professor Gabor Vali, now retired from the UW Department of Science, in 2001 was a contributor to a chapter on "aerosols, their direct and indirect effects," according to a University of Wyoming press release. Vali is widely recognized for his research on the formation and development of ice in the atmosphere and biosphere.
Jason Shogren, Stroock professor of natural resource conservation and management at UW, was among the lead authors for the IPCC's third Assessment Report in 2001.
Shogren's work examined the costs and benefits of how to control climate.
"The question of our use of natural resources and how we affect ourselves and the rest of the world is fundamental," Shogren said in a phone interview Friday.
Shogren served in 1997 on the White House's Council of Economic Advisors as senior economist for environmental and natural resource policy.
Shogren said his was but a "small sliver" of contributing science to the IPCC's work. Of course, he was pulling for Gore to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
"It's well deserved," Shogren said. "Not everyone is going to agree with it."
Although his work represents just one small piece of the decades-long effort in the scientific community to analyze climate change and its effects, Shogren said he's proud to have been part of a group of scientists who scrutinized one another's work.
"One of most exciting parts is this that a group of scientists, notorious for disagreements, can work together and understand a complex problem as best as humanly possible," Shogren said.