"A Morris Area High School graduate contributed work to the panel honored last week with a Nobel Peace Prize.
Catherine O’Reilly is a biologist at Bard College, in New York, and she is the daughter of Mike and Marie O’Reilly, of rural Donnelly.
Catherine O’Reilly is a 1990 MAHS graduate.
Catherine O’Reilly worked with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which worked to disseminate knowledge about global warming.
Catherine O’Reilly worked with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which worked to disseminate knowledge about global warming.
“It’s a little surprising, a little unexpected,” O’Reilly said Thursday.
Her Nobel news led to some proud moments for her family, she said.
“My parents are excited,” O’Reilly said, adding with a laugh, “When you have a daughter, you don’t expect them to win a Nobel Peace Prize. But they’re just excited that I like scientific work and that I like my job. This is just icing on the cake.”
O’Reilly is one of the leading scientists whose work for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), was recognized with this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced last week that the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded to both the IPCC and former Vice President Al Gore “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.”
“I’m very proud to have been one of the many scientists who have participated in the IPCC’s work, and it is extremely gratifying to see that work being recognized by the Nobel Committee for its significance to society,” O’Reilly said in a release from Bard.
O’Reilly, an assistant professor of biology at Bard and a freshwater ecology specialist, contributed to a section in the IPCC’s Working Group II report, “Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability,” which was released in April. She summarized research on the impact of climate change on freshwater environments, reporting strong evidence that recent climate changes, particularly increases in temperature, are having a substantial impact on lakes and rivers around the world.
She said she hopes the Nobel Prize will lead to greater public awareness of the implications of climate change.
“The 2007 report by the IPCC illustrates the potential for climate change to affect world peace through changes in things such as water availability, food production, and exposure to disease.”
O’Reilly said Thursday that her work for the IPCC started as a side project after she was recommended to the group based on work she had completed on environmental changes in lakes in East Africa. That work has been published in the scientific journal “Nature” and was featured on PBS and on Public Radio International’s “Living on Earth” program.
It’s interesting, she said, that science and peace are being linked through the IPCC’s achievement.
“Obviously, this is a scientific accomplishment and this is the Nobel Peace Prize,” O’Reilly said. “Those things aren’t normally linked. But climate change will have a huge impact on how society will function and that will have a bearing on peace. We depend on the planet a lot and climate change will have a big impact on how we interact with it.”
The Working Group II report was the second of three Climate Change 2007 reports, which aimed to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of current knowledge on climate change.
The Working Group II report gathered leading scientists to assess the vulnerability of socioeconomic and natural systems to climate change, the negative and positive consequences of climate change, and options for adapting to it.
Whereas IPCC’s first working group focused on climate-related changes, Working Group II examines more than 30 years of research on how these climate changes have already affected lakes, oceans, forests, and animal and plant species.
When the report was released in April, O’Reilly commented, “Lakes and rivers around the world are warming, and, while the responses have been complex and depend highly on geographic location, the research shows that temperature increases are having an impact on the abundance, productivity, distribution, and migration patterns of many freshwater species.”
Among her conclusions, O’Reilly noted that increasing temperatures have caused changes in many lakes and rivers that have affected fish species. These changes have consequences for people who depend on these natural systems as a food supply, particularly in developing countries where fishing may be an important source of protein.
After graduating from MAHS, she earned a B.A. from Carleton College and a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona."
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"Dr. Francis Collins is a world renowned expert in human genetics who spearheaded the U.S. government's efforts to sequence the entire human genome at the National Institutes of Health. He is also arguably the most vocal Christian biologist of modern times. He recently wrote a book titled "The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief", in which he explains his belief that science (i.e. evolution) and Judeo-Christian faith do not contradict. You can also read about his debate with Richard Dawkins, staunch atheist and author of "The God Delusion": http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1555132-3,00.html"
