The Charm of the Amalfi Coast

UCLA Distinguished Professor Glen MacDonald has travelled the globe uncovering evidence of climate change and its impacts on the environment and on human societies. He uses a variety of research techniques, ranging from satellite imagery, to historical documents, to fossils and geochemistry. This allows him to study climate change, and the history of the Earth’s environments and people, as it happens today and back thousands of years into the past. He is particularly interested in the roles of climate and environmental change in shaping human history. Glen is an award-winning teacher and author, with academic experience in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Glen was also a Rockefeller Fellow at Bellagio on Lake Como. He holds a number of honors including election to the National Academy of Sciences, election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and recipient of the University of Helsinki Medal. Glen brings a unique international perspective and depth of scholarship to his lively lectures. On this trip he will share insights into how climatic changes such as the Roman Warm Period and Late Antiquity Little Ice Age may have impacted the Roman Empire and the post Imperial period – including the devastating Justinian Plague of the 6th Century. What might this history tell us about future climate change and its impacts? Along the way Glen will also share some of the adventures he has experienced during his many scientific expeditions.