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Dr. Robert W. Corell is an Adjunct Professorship at the University of Miami’s Department of Ocean Sciences and holds a professorship at the University of the Arctic. The is a Principal at the Global Environment Technology Foundation where he leads its Center for Energy and Climate Solutions. He has several recent academic appointments, including the Arctic Chair at the University of Tromsø, Norway. He is Chief Scientist at the International Sea Level Institute. He is a Senior Fellow at the the Consortium for Ocean Leadership. He was a Council Member of the Global Energy Assessment (GEA) and lead author of GEA’s Chapter 3 on Environment and Energy. He led the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (2005) and most recently lead a comprehensive study of governance issues in the circumpolar Arctic. In 2013, chaired and was the lead author of the 2013 UNEP Year Book on “The View from the Top Searching for Responses to a Rapidly Changing Arctic” and more recently, the Co-Chair of the 2016 UNEP’s GEO-6 North American Regional Assessment. He was recognized with the other scientists for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessments. In 2008 he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science, University of Alaska, Anchorage and in 2010, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Veterinarian Medicine by the Norges Veterinærhøgskole (Norwegian School of Veterinarian Science). In 2017, Case Western Reserve University Case Alumni Association awarded him the Gold Medal Award for lifetime achievements. A circular mountain region forming the head of a glacier in Antarctica was named in 2003 the “Corell Cirque” by the Board on Geographical Names (79°54′00″S, 155°57′00″E).
Dr. Corell is actively engaged in research concerned with the sciences of global change and the interface between science and public policy, particularly research activities that are focused on the science of global and regional climate change. This effort is designed to facilitate understanding of vulnerability and sustainable development. For example, he is a lead author in the 2011, 2016 and 2017 North Pacific Arctic Conference’s Annual book, the last of which is titled: A North Pacific Dialogue on Building Capacity for a Sustainable Arctic in a Changing Global Order. He has published several dozen peer-reviewed articles and book chapters during the past decade, a recent example is 2016 GEO-6 Global Environment Outlook: Regional Assessment for North America, UN Environment Programme and 2017 Chapter 6 Impact analysis and consequences of change. Adaptation Actions for Changing Arctic (AACA), Arctic Council and AMAP and the section author of the book, “2052 - A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years” by Jorgen Randers, that provides mid-century global climate projections. He is a Science Advisor to the National Geographic “Years of Living Dangerously” TV series.
Dr. Corell was Assistant Director for Geosciences at the National Science Foundation (1987-2000) where he had oversight for the Atmospheric, Earth, Ocean Sciences, Polar Programs and was Chair of the United States Global Change Research Program (1987-2000), the latter reporting to the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy. He was also a professor and academic administrator at the University of New Hampshire. Dr. Corell is an oceanographer and engineer by background and training, having received Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. degrees at Case Western Reserve University and MIT. He has also held visiting scientist appointments at the Woods Hole Institution of Oceanography, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of Washington. He is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the Bermuda Institute for Ocean Sciences and a member of the U.S. National Committee at the National Academy of Sciences for International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis in Vienna, Austria.