Congratulations are due to Dr. Joseph Ortiz, associate professor of geology at Kent State University, for his research on long-term El Niño climactic oscillations which will appear in this month’s issue of Science, the prestigious journal published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest science society.  Dr. Ortiz worked on an international team of  researchers funded by the National Science Foundation.  The research team also includes Thomas Marchitto (University of Colorado); Raimund Muscheler (Lund University in Sweden); Jose Carriquiry (Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Ensenada in Mexico); and Alexander van Geen (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University).

Their paper, “Dynamical Response of the Tropical Pacific Ocean to Solar Forcing During the Early Holocene,” helps to provide a better understanding of the long-term history of the El Niño climate system.  The results of this research has implications for enhancing short-term prediction of this system and may help to mitigate associated natural disasters.

Read an article about Dr. Ortiz’s work on Kent State University’s website and find the published work in the December 2010 issue of Science.