Purdue University, United States of America
Matt heads the Climate Dynamics Prediction Laboratory at Purdue University. Matt studies ocean-atmosphere interactions and climate in past and future greenhouse climates. He currently heads the Climate Dynamics Prediction Laboratory and is Associate Director, Purdue Climate Change Research Center. He studies past climates in Earth’s history convinced that our understanding of modern and future climate is only as secure as our understanding of past climate. Predicting future global warming without testing climate models on the past is risky. He now works to improve our understanding of the warmer climates that dominated Earth history in the distant past. The tools he uses are the same models used for understanding modern climate, but with appropriate changes to past geography. He is especially interested in the causes of Eocene warmth ~55-35 million years ago when atmospheric CO2 levels were much higher than in pre-industrial times. Matt's studied as a Geophysics undergraduate at the University of Chicago, undertaking a Ph.D. at UC Santa Cruz, and post-doctoral work at the Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen University. He has been professor at Purdue University since 2003.