Johnson County Science Cafe

Climate – An Exercise in Geometry and Energy Redistribution

Speaker: Dr. Kenneth S. Schmitz – Professor of physical chemistry and environmental studies at the University of Missouri – Kansas City

Date: August 9, 2011

Time: 6:30 pm

Location: Coaches Bar and Grill, 14893 Metcalf, in private room

Dr. Schmitz will provide a follow-up to Dr. Miller’s talk from June. His talk will help us view climate on a geometric basis – the curvature of the Earth and the rotation of the Earth. In this view the climate is a result of energy redistribution as the Earth rotates and moves about the Sun. It will emphasize the roll  the atmosphere and the oceans play in this redistribution of energy. This view will capture the basics of his Environmental Chemistry class, which he has developed over the past 5 years or so.

Dr. Schmitz received the bachelor degree from Greenville College in Illinois, with majors in mathematics, physics, and chemistry. He received the doctoral degree in the area of biophysics from the University of Washington in Seattle, after which he spent a year at Stanford University on an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship. In 1984 he originated and was the first chairman of the Gordon Research Conference now known as “Macromolecular and Polyelectrolyte Solutions”. He has written two technical books on macromolecular systems and was editor of two symposium volumes.

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