My research
I'm interested in how and why climate has changed in the past, and in how to devise better ways to test the models we use to predict climate change in the future. I'm currently employed at UL Renewables, where I do am lead research scientist in our Grid Solutions group. In my academic work, my students and I have used computer climate models to understand how the climate system responds to changes at the earth's surface, whether due to geological processes like mountain building, or fast human processes like the construction of wind turbines. We work to develop tests of the climate models we use to predict future climate by comparing climate model predictions of time-lagged correlations among climate variables with the same statistics in observations. In addition we're involved in an effort to develop an optimal satellite climate monitoring system, investigating the dependence of sampling errors on the orbital characterisitcs of the system.
Some of the topics I work on are