Joe Barsugli's Bio

I am a Research Scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado, Boulder. I was mercifully diverted from a career in theoretical particle physics because of a course I took as an undergraduate at Harvard with Prof. Richard Lindzen. I went on to receive a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Washington in Seattle working with Dennis Hartmann and David Battisti on the theory of atmosphere-ocean interactions.

My specialty is "Climate Dynamics", which is the study of the changing climates of the past, present and future with an emphasis on the role of atmospheric and oceanic fluid motions -- winds and currents -- often using numerical models. I also study the application of stochastic (random) methods to climate dynamics, as well as statistical analysis of climate model output. Some recent topics of interest are: the global effects of El Nino, ocean overturning circulations in the last Ice Age, statistical methods for reconstructing the climate of the past 2000 years, and a new theory of "climate Green's Functions". I have recently become interested in the role of anthropogenic climate change on the water resources in the West.