Dr. Don Wuebbles, professor emeritus of atmospheric science at the University of Illinois, calls climate change “the biggest challenge of our time.” Wuebbles, who shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), will discuss extreme weather events related to climate change and possible ways to slow and mitigate the challenge during the 2021 Stueck Lecture at Missouri S&T.

Wuebbles will present “Our Changing Climate: The Science and the Pathway to Sustainability” at 1:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 8, at Leach Theatre, located in Missouri S&T’s Castleman Hall. The event is free and open to the public. For those not able to attend in person, the talk with be available on Zoom.

“I feel confident that we can slow climate change and reduce its magnitude, but it will take a worldwide effort” says Wuebbles. “The clock is ticking. Meaningful solutions rest on technological, education, social and cultural actions.”

Wuebbles is an expert in atmospheric physics and chemistry and has authored more than 500 scientific publications related to Earth’s air quality, climate and the stratospheric ozone layer. His metrics for ozone depletion and global warming potentials are commonly used around the world in establishing national and international policy. He was a coordinating lead author on several international climate assessments led by IPCC that resulted in the Nobel Prize.

From 2015 to early 2017, Wuebbles was assistant director with the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the Executive Office of the President in Washington, D.C., where he was the White House expert on climate science. He currently directs the Center for Urban Resilience and Environmental Sustainability (CURES) across the University of Illinois System. Wuebbles is a fellow of three professional science societies: The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and the American Meteorological Society (AMS).

The lecture is presented as part of the Neil and Maurita Stueck Distinguished Lecture Series for Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at Missouri S&T. The series is made possible by a fund established by Maurita Stueck to bring additional outside perspectives to S&T students and to honor her late husband, Neil Stueck, a 1943 civil engineering graduate of the university.

About Missouri University of Science and Technology

Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) is a STEM-focused research university of over 7,200 students and is part of the four-campus University of Missouri System. Located in Rolla, Missouri, Missouri S&T offers 101 different degree programs in 40 areas of study and is ranked by CollegeFactual as the best public university to study engineering. For more information about Missouri S&T, visit www.mst.edu.