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William Gutowski, climate scientist and professor of meteorology in the Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, was selected by Dean Schmittmann to deliver the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean’s Distinguished Lecture on March 31 at 7:00 p.m. The lecture, “Climate change in Iowa: How we got here, how we can choose a better future together,” will be presented in Durham Great Hall at the Iowa State Memorial Union and also livestreamed.

Gutowski has been a contributing and lead author for the last four major reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The panel has guided climate research worldwide, establishing irrefutable evidence that human emissions and human activity are causing a rise in average global temperatures and an increase in extreme weather events, such as droughts, damaging storms, heavy precipitation and floods.

Gutowski, who contributed to an IPCC report that earned a Nobel Peace Prize, will discuss what climate change means for Iowa and how Iowans can make a difference. He will share his vision of interdisciplinary cooperation, in which journalists, social scientists, artists, educators, researchers and other experts can collaborate to advance local action on climate change. Gutowski believes that engagement with local stakeholders, such as water managers, farmers and others, drives meaningful and personalized connections to climate change issues.

A live Q&A session with Gutowski will follow the lecture.

While serving on the World Meteorological Organization’s World Climate Research Programme, Gutowski has played a part in guiding the direction of climate research worldwide. An accomplished scholar with more than 120 peer-reviewed publications, Gutowski’s research has garnered nearly 7,000 citations. He served as editor of the Journal of Hydrometeorology for five years and co-authored two high-profile U.S. National Academy of Sciences reports on climate. An American Meteorological Society Fellow, Gutowski earned his Ph.D. in meteorology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The LAS Dean’s Distinguished Lecture highlights faculty excellence in learning, discovery and engagement. Each semester, the dean invites LAS faculty of distinction to present lectures from their own areas of expertise on topics of interest to the general public, designed to stimulate high-quality, intellectual discussion among faculty, staff, students and community members.

This event is free and open to the public.