[Grad-postdoc-assn] Opportunity for Postdocs

[Paula Fisher]

Dear Postdocs,

Jerry Mahlman of SERE has generously offered to work with NCAR 
postdoctoral fellows in whatever capacity that you might like.   He 
brings to the table a scientific background that is quite broad and 
eclectic, so much so that he could be of potential value to many of 
you.     If you have questions about career opportunities, scientific 
opportunities, scientific directions, etc., Jerry would be pleased to 
work with you.  Please see his note to all of you below for more information.

You will find Jerry's Curriculam Vita 
here:  http://www.isse.ucar.edu/mahlman/vitae.pdf.  His contact 
information follows at the end of his email below.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Paula


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>Date: Thu, 07 Sep 2006 12:20:36 -0600
>From: Jerry Mahlman <jmahlman at ucar.edu>
>User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.5 (Windows/20060719)
>To: paulad at ucar.edu
>Subject: [Fwd: Re: Working with Postdocs]
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>To NCAR AND ASP POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS:
>   My name is Jerry Mahlman.  I am a Senior Research Associate at 
> ISSE in NCAR.  I have recently noted an opportunity for me to 
> possibly be of assistance to many of you who are interested in 
> professional careers in the atmospheric and climate sciences.  If 
> this is the case for you, I might be able to be of assistance to 
> you, depending on your level of interest in those broad fields 
> where I have accumulated substantial expertise over the years.  It 
> is not my intention to "lure you away from your mentors and 
> supervisors".  On the contrary.  My broad experience may be able to 
> supplement your mentor's talents if your career goals are beginning 
> to focus toward areas that may be somewhat different than what you 
> are currently working on.
>   For those of you who are interested in careers that are in 
> somewhat different directions than the area in which you are 
> currently engaged, it might be worthwhile for you to consider 
> possible opportunities beyond your current position at NCAR.  I am 
> not writing to you to attempt to pull you in different directions 
> from your current research.  On the contrary.  What research you 
> are now engaged in may sustain you throughout your scientific 
> career.  However, it is almost guaranteed that what you eventually 
> do in science will evolve significantly away from your current research.
>   On a personal note, I have been involved in many aspects of 
> atmospheric and climate research over the past few 
> decades.  Indeed, my own career goals have evolved as the demand 
> for new knowledge has continued to grow.  For these reasons, for 
> those of you who may be interested, I would be privileged to 
> discuss your career goals, aspirations, and concerns as most of you 
> prepare to move beyond your current appointment, at NCAR, and elsewhere.
>   My own professional career started in physics and evolved into 
> the atmospheric sciences, with an emphasis on the atmospheric 
> general circulation, with some substantial
>"drift" into mathematical modeling of global atmospheric chemistry 
>and dynamics, with emphasis on the stratosphere and the upper troposphere.
>As my career advanced, I "stumbled" into the position of Director of 
>NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at Princeton.  In that 
>position, I became very interested in the looming problem of 
>human-caused climate warming, how it is modeled, how it is measured, 
>and how it is diagnosed.  Almost inevitably, this new focus made me 
>very interested in the still very dauntingly challenging global 
>ocean modeling problem.  Even today, we still face difficult ocean 
>modeling and diagnostic interpretative challenges.
>   More recently, I have become affiliated with NCAR's new Institute 
> for the Study of Society and the Environment.  This choice was an 
> important one for me because it highlighted a very important new 
> research frontier:  How will the slow, but inexorable, onset of 
> global warming affect specific regions differently?  How will 
> wealthy human societies adapt?  Will poverty-dominated human 
> societies even be able to adapt?
>Will threatened terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems be able to adapt?
>Will atmospheric CO2-induced acidification of the upper ocean cause 
>widespread marine extinctions?  How will warming of terrestrial 
>continental interiors effect their ecosystems?
>   This leads us into questions on: How will we atmospheric, 
> oceanic, and climate scientists interact with the political systems 
> of the world?  Are we fundamentally wired in to  incompatible value systems?
>Will the world's politicians help create far more rational energy 
>use policies than what we currently see?  Will economists be part of 
>the needed global-scale solutions?
>   Clearly, I don't have strong answers to most all of these 
> questions, but they do provide a pathway to future decades of new 
> research on the earth's systems that are almost certainly 
> guaranteed to challenge us scientifically for many decades.
>
>   If any of you are interested in exploring the new environmental 
> research and communication opportunities that I have touched upon, 
> I would be pleased to discuss your own thoughts, ambitions, and 
> aspirations with you.  Please feel free to contact me at 
> jmahlman at ucar.edu, or call me at my NCAR phone(Ext. 1608), or call 
> me at my home phone(303-682-9382).  Also, my NCAR contact person 
> when I am away from my office(Room 2056 in Center Green 1) is Paula 
> Fisher(Ext. 1328) from ASP.  She has kindly agreed to provide an 
> interface to help set up informal appointments you wish to have 
> with me to discuss your own career goals informally with me.
>   Thanks for your attention.  I look forward to hearing from you.
>Jerry Mahlman, ISSE