Nobel Prize winner hails from Palatine
Former Vice President Al Gore recently captured headlines when he was chosen to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. But Palatine has its own connection to the Nobel Peace Prize this year.
Gore shared the prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Fremd graduate Bette Otto-Bliesner was a lead author on one of the panel's key reports.
Otto-Bliesner, 56, now lives in Colorado, but she grew up in Palatine, attending Pleasant Hill for kindergarten to sixth grade, Paddock for junior high and Fremd for high school. She was valedictorian of the Fremd class of 1968.
She received her bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in meteorology, all from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
She visits the Chicago area often. Her mother now lives in Fairfax Village in Rolling Meadows and her aunt and uncle in Arlington Heights. Her daughter lives in Lincoln Park and attends the University of Chicago.
I had the opportunity to do an e-mail interview with Otto-Bliesner to talk about her work and the Nobel Peace Prize.
Q. While growing up in Palatine, did anything in particular spark your interest in science?
A. I first became interested in meteorology as a child watching P.J. Hoff, the CBS affiliate weatherman. In high school, I took lots of math and physics, including honors physics with Don Froehlich. They nicknamed our class the "dirty dozen" because there were 12 of us, 10 young men and just two young women.
Q. Can you explain, in layman's terms, what you do in your job?
A. I am a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. I use computer-based models of Earth's climate to investigate past climate change. I am particularly interested in climate change forced naturally over the cold and warm cycles of the last million years.
Recently, I have been involved in examining past times of warm summers in the Arctic and the impacts on the Greenland Ice Sheet and sea level. My research is funded by the National Science Foundation.
Q. What was your role in the project that was recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize?
A. I was a lead author on the chapter on Paleoclimate in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report. This chapter is a synthesis of the state of our knowledge on past climate change. We document what happened in the past, how well we understand past climate changes, and how well we can model these changes. This report took over two years of work to produce the final report.
Q. Why do you think receiving the Nobel Peace Prize is important to your work and how might this award help your work in the future?
A. I was thrilled that the IPCC shared the Nobel Peace Prize. The prize recognizes the importance of climate science research, and for me the relevance of my work in understanding past climates to present-day and future climates.
To learn more about Otto-Bliesner and her work, visit her Web page at www.cgd.ucar.edu/ ccr/ottobli/index.html.