THE OSGOOD LECTURE

The Osgood Lecture

Wednesday, March 31, 2004, was the date of The Twenty–Third Annual Richard G. Osgood, Jr., Memorial Lecture in the Department of Geology.

Dr. Lonnie G. Thompson of the Byrd Polar Research Center at The Ohio State University presented:

“Rapid Climate Change: Past, Present and Future”

A native of West Virginia, Dr. Lonnie Thompson earned his B.S. degree from Marshall University and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in geology from The Ohio State University. During the past two decades, he has led more than 45 expeditions to some of the world's most remote ice fields, drilling down to the bedrock to retrieve ice cores that measure hundreds of meters long. These ice cores contain climate histories that extend back thousands of years, the oldest of which is more than 700,000 years old and contains evidence of four global-scale ice ages, much like the one that covered Columbus with a mile of ice some 14,000 years ago.

The recipient of numerous accolades and awards, including the 2002 A.H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences, Dr. Thompson's research has unraveled global climate histories from ice cores that have been drilled on remote, mountaintop glaciers on five continents. His disclosure in 2001 that mountain glaciers in Africa and Peru were melting at an alarming rate - one that will likely lead to the loss of Kilimanjaro's ice fields within the next 15 years - sent shockwaves through the scientific community.

The Richard G. Osgood, Jr. Memorial Lectureship in Geology was endowed in 1981 by his three sons in memory of their father, a paleontologist with an international reputation who taught at Wooster from 1967 until 1981. Funds from this endowment are used to bring a well-known scientist interested in paleontology and/or stratigraphy to the campus each year to lecture and meet with students.

Osgood Lecturers:

1982 John Pojeta, Jr. United States Geological Survey

1983 J. William Schopf The University of California, Los Angeles

1984 David Jablonski The University of Chicago

1985 Walter Manger (‘66) The University of Arkansas

1986 Susan Kidwell The University of Chicago

1987 Niles Eldredge The American Museum of Natural History

1988 Steven Stanley Johns Hopkins University

1989 Paul Taylor The British Museum (Natural History)

1990 Erle Kauffman The University of Colorado

1991 Rodney M. Feldmann Kent State University

1992 Molly F. Miller (‘69) Vanderbilt University

1993 John Van Wagoner (‘72) Exxon Production Research Company

1994 Adrienne Zihlman The University of California, Santa Cruz

1995 Martin Lockley The University of Colorado at Denver

1996 Timothy J. Palmer The University of Wales at Aberystwyth

1997 Jeffrey F. Mount The University of California, Davis

1998 Mary Droser The University of California, Riverside

1999 Bruce Latimer The Cleveland Museum of Natural History

2000 Paul C. Mayewski The University of New Hampshire

2001 Carlton E. Brett The University of Cincinnati

2002 Douglas H. Erwin The Smithsonian Institution

2003 Mark A. Norell The American Museum of Natural History

2004 Lonnie Thompson Byrd Polar Research Center

The Ohio State University