Gifford H. Miller | |
---|---|
Born | Michigan |
Academic background | |
Education | BS, 1970, PhD, 1975, University of Colorado Boulder |
Thesis | Glacial and climatic history of northern Cumberland Peninsula, Baffin Island, Canada, during the last 10,000 years (1975) |
Academic work | |
Institutions | University of Colorado Boulder Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research |
Gifford H. Miller is an American paleoclimatologist. He is a Distinguished Professor in the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Miller was born into an academic family as his father,Robert,worked at the University of Michigan and specialized in the endemic fish populations of the western US. [1] He enrolled at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) and Albion College for his undergraduate degree but left after his sophomore year to join the Volunteers in Service to America program in western Alaska. Miller eventually enrolled at the University of Colorado Boulder where he planned to major in social sciences but switched to geology after being taught by William C Bradley and meeting geologist John T. Andrews. [2] While completing his PhD,Miller made some of the earliest observations on the application of lichenometry to estimate the ages of Neoglacial moraines. [1]
Following his PhD,Miller completed a postdoctoral fellowship with PE Hare at the Geophysical Laboratory,Washington D.C.,then returned to CU Boulder and the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America's Division of Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology. [1] In the 1990s,Miller served as an associate professor and department chair of CUBoulder's Department of Geological Sciences. [3] In this role,he collaborated with Montreal researcher Anne de Vernal to study the impact of global warming on the Northern Hemisphere's ice sheets. [4] He was also the chief author on a study indicating Australia's interior cooled by more than 16 degrees Fahrenheit during the last ice age. [5] As a result of his research,Miller received a 2005–06 Faculty Fellowship, [6] which he used to study Elephant Bird (Aepyornis) extinction and environmental change in Madagascar. [7] During his fellowship,Miller also received the 2005 Easterbrook Distinguished Scientist Award as an "individual who has shown unusual excellence in published research." [1]
Through his studies,which were based on lake-bed sediments,Miller was able to collect valuable data on the Arctic's environmental changes. This resulted in a 2008 study revealed that the ice caps on Canada's Baffin Island have shrunk by over 50% due to the warming temperatures. [8] Miller was later tapped as an expert to give his perspective on the discovery of pristine skeletal remains of Pleistocene megafauna in remote Australian limestone caves. Although he did not participate in the study itself,he provided commentary for Bone Diggers,a NOVA documentary on the discovery. [9] In 2008,Miller was elected a Member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. [10] The following year,he was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union for his "pioneering work in dating methods as well as his insights into the Quaternary climates and the role of humans in ecological change." [8]
In 2018,Miller was the recipient of the 2018 Distinguished Career Award from the American Quaternary Association as a scientist who has contributed significantly and continuously to the advancement of Quaternary science. [11] In November 2021,Miller was appointed to the rank of Distinguished Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences and the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. [12]
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university in Boulder,Colorado. Founded in 1876,five months before Colorado became a state,it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado system. CU Boulder is a member of the Association of American Universities,a selective group of major research universities in North America,and is classified among R1:Doctoral Universities –Very high research activity. In 2021,the university attracted support of over $634 million for research and spent $536 million on research and development according to the National Science Foundation,ranking it 50th in the nation.
The New Siberian Islands are an archipelago in the Extreme North of Russia,to the north of the East Siberian coast between the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea north of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic.
New Siberia is the easternmost of the Anzhu Islands,the northern subgroup of the New Siberian Islands lying between the Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea. Its area of approximately 6,200 square kilometres places it the 102nd largest islands in the world. New Siberia Island is low lying,rising to only 76 metres and covered with tundra vegetation. The island is a part of the territory of Yakutia,Russia.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) is a United States information and referral center in support of polar and cryospheric research. NSIDC archives and distributes digital and analog snow and ice data and also maintains information about snow cover,avalanches,glaciers,ice sheets,freshwater ice,sea ice,ground ice,permafrost,atmospheric ice,paleoglaciology,and ice cores.
Sir Nicholas John Shackleton was an English geologist and paleoclimatologist who specialised in the Quaternary Period. He was the son of the distinguished field geologist Robert Millner Shackleton and great-nephew of the explorer Ernest Shackleton.
William Richard Peltier,Ph.D.,D.Sc. (hc),is university professor of physics at the University of Toronto. He is director of the Centre for Global Change Science,past principal investigator of the Polar Climate Stability Network,and the scientific director of Canada's largest supercomputer centre,SciNet. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada,of the American Geophysical Union,of the American Meteorological Society,and of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters..
Norman Richard Pace Jr. is an American biochemist,and is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Molecular,Cellular and Developmental Biology at the University of Colorado. He is principal investigator at the Pace lab.
The Snowmastodon site,also known as the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site,is the location of an important Ice Age fossil excavation near Snowmass Village,Colorado. Fossils were first discovered on October 14,2010,during the construction of a 5 hectare reservoir to supply Snowmass Village with water. Over the subsequent weeks,after an agreement had been reached to allow paleontological excavation,crews from the Denver Museum of Nature &Science and the U.S. Geological Survey worked along with the construction crews as more fossil material was uncovered. The site closed for five months over the winter,reopening May 15,2011. Between May 15 and July 4,2011,crews from the Denver Museum of Nature &Science conducted a large scale fossil excavation alongside construction crews building a dam for the reservoir. In total over 36,000 vertebrate fossils,more than 100 species of fossil invertebrates and over 100 species of fossil plants were found in sediments deposited by an alpine lake during the last interglacial period.
Mark F. Meier was an American glaciologist who was considered a leading expert on the study of rising sea levels due to the melting of glaciers. Meier was the Director of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) from 1985 to 1994 and remained the institute's director emeritus until his death in 2012. He was also a professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Jason Eric Box is professor in glaciology at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. For 10 years (2002-2012) he worked at Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University,eventually a tenured physical climatology and geography associate professor in the department of geography.
The Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) is a scientific institute that is part of the University of Colorado Boulder. Its research mission is to "[develop] scientific knowledge of physical and biogeochemical environmental processes at local,regional and global scales,and appl[y] this knowledge to improve society's awareness and understanding of natural and anthropogenic environmental change."
Konrad "Koni" Steffen was a Swiss glaciologist,known for his research into the impact of global warming on the Arctic.
Peter Molnar was a professor in Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado. His research focused on aspects of how mountain ranges form and continental lithosphere deforms.
Diane McKnight is a professor of civil,environmental,and architectural engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder and a fellow at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR). McKnight is a founding principal investigator of the National Science Foundation's Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica.
John Thomas Andrews is a British-American geologist and professor emeritus of geological and atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR),in Boulder,Colorado,USA.
George Henry Born was an American aerospace engineer,Distinguished Professor,founder and Director Emeritus of the Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research (CCAR) at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is known for his work in satellite navigation and precise orbit determination. He worked on various missions while at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as well as navigation support for the Apollo program in the late 1960s while at Johnson Space Center.
James Zachos is an American paleoclimatologist,oceanographer,and marine scientist. He is currently a professor and chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary sciences at University of California,Santa Cruz where he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2017. He has conducted research on a wide variety of topics related to biological,chemical,and climatic evolution of late Cretaceous and Cenozoic oceans,and is credited with developing a new understanding of long-term climate change and climate transitions over the past 65 million years. His investigations of past climatic conditions help predict the consequences of anthropogenic carbon emissions on future climate change.
Julie Brigham-Grette is a glacial geologist and a professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where she co-directs the Joseph Hartshorn Quaternary Laboratory. Her research expertise is in glacial geology and paleoclimatology;she has made important contributions to Arctic marine and terrestrial paleoclimate records of late Cenozoic to recent,the evolution of the Arctic climate,especially in the Beringia/Bering Strait region,and was a leader of the international Lake El’gygytgyn Drilling Project in northeastern Russia.
Merritt Turetsky is American ecosystem ecologist who is a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. She serves as Director of the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR). Her research considers fire regimes,climate change and biogeochemical cycling in Arctic wetlands. Turetsky is a member of the Permafrost Action Team (SEARCH),a group of scientists who translate and deliver science to decision-makers.
Gifford H. Miller publications indexed by Google Scholar