Lonnie G. Thompson and Ellen Mosley-Thompson, the winners of PNC Bank's 2002 Common Wealth Award for Science and Invention, will make presentations on their work with glaciers on Saturday, April 20, at the University of Delaware’s Clayton Hall.

In association with PNC Bank, W.L. Gore & Associates will host two 30-minute presentations by the Thompsons in 128 Clayton Hall that morning.

The sessions, titled “Ice Core: Windows on the Past, Keys to the Future” and “Disappearing Glaciers: Evidence of a Rapidly Changing Earth,” will be held from 10 a.m.-noon, with question-and-answer periods following each presentation. The sessions are free and open to the campus community.

The husband-and-wife team has spent the past 25 years studying Earth's climate changes.

Lonnie Thompson's work has focused on tropical glaciers, and he has led 40 expeditions to gather samples from the mountains of Tibet, Africa and Peru.

Ellen Mosley-Thompson's work has focused on the effects of climate change on the polar ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica.

Both have analyzed Earth's ancient climate through the chemistry and physical properties of ice cores and ice sheet samples. Together, their findings offer some of the most scientifically convincing evidence that global warming is real, and that human activity is a contributing factor.

More information about the Thompsons and their work can be found at http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~bchristn/html/the_ice_group.html.

April 16, 2002