June 30, 2010

Jim McClintock. Download image.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Jim McClintock, Ph.D., Endowed Professor of Polar or Marine Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), has been selected to serve on a newly formed working group to develop a national report on the effects of climate change.

McClintock was chosen for the role by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Polar Research Board. He and 25 other leading scientists in the field will help develop a report, Frontiers in Understanding Climate Change and Polar Ecosystems, to share objective findings with U.S. leaders and policymakers to help ensure legislative decisions are better informed.

"This report is important," McClintock says, "because polar ecosystems are the world's canary in the coal mine. What happens in the polar regions in the decades to come will tell us much about the fate of the rest of the globe as it relates to climate change."

The NAS working group will seek to collect and consider the latest data and identify existing gaps in knowledge of the field. Ultimately, its report will be used to generate a broader National Resource Council statement that will identify emerging research opportunities for the scientific community and sponsoring agencies such as the National Science Foundation and others.

"I am honored by the selection to serve the National Academy of Sciences," McClintock says. "Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time, and I look forward to the opportunity to better define the threats posed by a warming planet."

McClintock's working group meets Aug. 24-25 in Cambridge, Md., for a series of meetings and work sessions to establish the content of the Frontiers report, which will be written and finalized by group members in the months that follow.

About the UAB Department of Biology

The UAB Department of Biology is a dynamic academic partnership that provides a broad-based graduate and undergraduate education led by teacher scholars with specialties in comparative biochemistry, physiology and eco-physiology of aquatic organisms and microbiology. It is housed in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences, home to academic disciplines that include the arts, humanities, sciences and the School of Education. The college's unique structure advances research and learning in both K-12 and higher education, and its courses are taught by a world-class faculty. Committed to the UAB spirit of independence and innovation, the college enables students to design their own majors, participate in undergraduate research or complete graduate degrees on a five-year fast track. Through productive partnerships, flexible curricula and a bold, interdisciplinary approach to learning and teaching, the college is preparing students for success in the ever-changing global marketplace of commerce and ideas.