David Douglass (physicist)

David H. Douglass (born 1932) is an American physicist at the University of Rochester.

David H. Douglass
Born1932 (age 88–89)
Alma materUniversity of Maine, MIT
Scientific career
FieldsSolid-state physics
InstitutionsUniversity of Rochester
ThesisAntiferromagnetic resonance in manganous chloride (1959)

Background

Douglass received his B.S. in Physics from the University of Maine and his Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After positions at MIT Lincoln Laboratories and MIT, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago. At Chicago, he was promoted to Associate Professor and later Professor. He joined the University of Rochester as a Professor of Physics in 1969. Douglass was a recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Award (junior) for 4 years, the Alfred P. Sloan Award (senior), and the University of Rochester's Bridging Fellowship to the Eastman School of Music. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the New York Academy of Sciences.

Douglass' interests have been in the general area of Experimental Condensed Matter Physics. His work has involved experiments in the areas of liquid helium and superconductivity (both low temperature and high temperature). Significant contributions have also been made in the field of gravitational wave detectors. Douglass has also worked on chaos and frequency drifts of spectral lines of extended sources. His interests for the last several years have been on climate change.

Climate change

A 2005 study by Douglass and fellow University of Rochester physicist Robert S. Knox argued that global climate models underestimated the climate response to the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo. The study also contended that global temperature returned to normal much faster after the eruption than the models had predicted.[1][2]

A 2007 paper by Douglass and coworkers questioned the reliability of 22 of the most commonly used global climate models analyzed by Benjamin D. Santer and used by the IPCC to predict accelerated warming in the troposphere.[3][4] The study had originally been submitted to Geophysical Research Letters the previous year, but was rejected in September 2006 on Santer's recommendation.[5] Santer and 17 co-authors later rebutted Douglass' paper.[6][7]

Douglass was named a fellow of Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in 1963.[8] He is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences.

References
  1. Douglass, David H.; Knox, Robert S. (2005). "Climate forcing by the volcanic eruption of Mount Pinatubo". Geophysical Research Letters. 32 (5): L05710. arXiv:physics/0509166. Bibcode:2005GeoRL..32.5710D. doi:10.1029/2004GL022119. S2CID 13563394.
  2. "Press release: AGU Journal highlights - 23 March 2005". AGU via EurekAlert!. 23 March 2005.
  3. Douglass, David H.; Christy, John R.; Pearson, Benjamin D.; Singer, S. Fred (15 November 2008). "A comparison of tropical temperature trends with model predictions". International Journal of Climatology. 28 (13): 1693–1701. Bibcode:2008IJCli..28.1693D. doi:10.1002/joc.1651.
  4. Pearce, Fred (2010). The Climate Files: The Battle for the Truth about Global Warming. Guardian Books. p. XIV. ISBN 978-0-85265-229-9.
  5. Pearce, Fred (9 February 2010). "Victory for openness as IPCC climate scientist opens up lab doors". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
  6. Santer, B. D. (2008). "Consistency of modelled and observed temperature trends in the tropical troposphere" (PDF). International Journal of Climatology. 28 (13): 1703–1722. Bibcode:2008IJCli..28.1703S. doi:10.1002/joc.1756.
  7. Heffernan, Olive (November 2008). "Riddle resolved". Nature Reports Climate Change. 1 (811): 139. doi:10.1038/climate.2008.112.
  8. Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. "Past Fellows". Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Official Website. Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Retrieved 21 October 2014.


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