Retired, but still active, in climate and global change science
Michael MacCracken has served on a pro bono basis as Chief Scientist for Climate Change Programs with the Climate Institute (climate.org) since retiring from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in September 2002. From 1968-93, Mike led LLNL’s modeling studies of the climatic effects of natural and human-induced factors such as volcanic eruptions, massive nuclear war, and emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. He simultaneously served as deputy division leader for atmospheric and geophysical sciences from 1974-87 and division leader from 1987-93. From 1993 to 2002, Mike was on assignment in Washington, DC, as senior scientist with the interagency Office of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), serving as the first executive director of the Office from 1993 to 1997 and as executive director of the USGCRP’s National Assessment Coordination Office from 1997 to 2001. Since retiring, Mike has also served as President of the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (2003-07), authored a dozen legal declarations explaining climate change science, been an active participant in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and national assessments, and served on the Synthesis Team for the first Arctic climate change assessment (2002-04). Mike received his Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Princeton (1964) and Ph.D. in Applied Science from the University of California Davis (1968).