News Release

Oceanographer to speak on past climate
change as revealed in coral record

CHAPEL HILL – Oceanographer Dr. Ellen Druffel will discuss what corals can reveal about past climate change and share her experiences as a woman in science in a free public lecture at 7 p.m. March 23 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Druffel’s talk, "Living Diaries of the Sea: What Corals Can Reveal About Past Climate Change," will be held in the Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building auditorium. Part of the Women in Science series, Druffel’s visit is sponsored by UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences, the department of marine sciences’ Blanton Lectureship in Oceanography and the Curriculum in Women’s Studies.

Druffel is a professor in the University of California at Irvine’s department of earth system science. Her research often takes her to sea, where she studies the connections between carbon cycling and climate.

Variations in sea surface temperature and chemistry can affect the cycling of carbon in the ocean – crucial to understanding carbon’s impact on global climate, Druffel said. Her studies of carbon cycling and the coral record have direct implications for understanding, in part, the extent of the anticipated greenhouse effect.

Druffel also has encouraged opportunities for women scientists: In 2003, she was one of two scientists named as the first Advance chairs at UC Irvine, an honor awarded to faculty who have been outstanding in their efforts to promote gender equity.

Druffel is a fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Geophysical Union and a member of the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography and the Oceanography Society.

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Photo URL: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/visiting/druffel_ellen.jpg

College of Arts and Sciences contact: Dee Reid, (919) 843-6339 or deereid@unc.edu