Date: Apr 29, 2008

The Climate Institute's Chief Scientist, Michael MacCracken, Discusses Climate Change and Its Impacts

May 1, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.; Presented by Hofstra's IDEAS Institute

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY – Dr. Michael MacCracken, chief scientist at the Climate Institute, will present a lecture titled The Increasing Pace of Climate Change and Its Impacts on Thursday, May 1, 2008.  This event, sponsored by Hofstra’s Institute for the Development of Education in the Advanced Sciences (IDEAS) and the Educate ’08 Event Series, will take place at Monroe Lecture Center Theater on Hofstra’s South Campus at 7:30 p.m.  The event is free and open to the public.

Dr. MacCracken will discuss human activities, primarily the combustion of coal, oil and natural gas, and how they are increasing the atmospheric concentrations of heat-trapping gases.  He will also speak about limiting national and global emissions and the ultimate goal of preventing global warming.

Recently, Dr. MacCracken served on a scientific expert group convened by Sigma Xi and the U.N. Foundation on Sustainable Development to suggest the best measures for adapting to global climate change. He has been the chief scientist for climate change programs with the Climate Institute in Washington, D.C. since 2002, earned a B.S. in engineering from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in applied science from the University of California Davis-Livermore.

IDEAS was assembled to provide a focus on cutting-edge issues in science and technology for the general public, local public, private school teachers and administrators and college educators. For more information on Dr. MacCracken’s talk or IDEAS, please call (516) 463-5792.

Educate '08 is an unprecedented educational effort that engages not only students and faculty
but also the public in a year-long series of conferences, events and lectures leading up to the final
presidential debate at Hofstra on Oct. 15, 2008. For more information on Educate ’08 go to www.hofstra.edu/educate08.

Hofstra University is a dynamic private institution where students can choose from about 145 undergraduate and 155 graduate programs in liberal arts and sciences, business, communication, education and allied human services, and honors studies, as well as a School of Law. With a student-faculty ratio of 14-to-1, our professors teach small classes averaging 22 students that emphasize interaction, critical thinking and analysis.