Arctic Visiting Speakers Series | Speakers Bureau

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--- SPEAKER BY NAME --- ALIA, Valerie BASKIN, Leonid BELOOUSSOVA, Ekaterina BILLSON, Janet Mancini BRET-HARTE, Syndonia BROADBENT, Noel D. BURNS, William CAHILL, Charles CLINE, Don COCHRAN, Patricia CORELL, Robert CRATE, Susan A. CRUMP, John DARBY, Dennis DE VROEDE, Jan DOMBROWSKI, Kirk FORMAN, Steven FEELY, Richard GLENN, Richard GORDON. Bryan GRADINGER, Rolf GRANTZ, Arthur GRIKUROV, Garrik E. HELENIAK, Timothy HUNTINGTON, Henry HUNTINGTON, Orville HUSKEY, Lee IL'INSKII, Vladimir V. IPELLIE, Alootook IRNIQ, Peter T. KELLER, Andrew M. KELLY, Brendan P. KLEIN, David R. KOIVUROVA, Timo KOKORIS, Moki KOZLOV, Mikhail LOBO, Susan LYBERTH, Angaangaq MACNAB, Ron MCGHEE, Robert MCROY, C. Peter MUKASA, Samuel B. MERCULIEFF, Larry OKKONEN, Steve OSGOOD DANA, Kathleen PACI, Christopher PAPUSHA, Alexander Nickolaevich POMEROY, John PUNGOWIYI, Caleb PUTILOV, Arcady A. RINNE, Arto ROBINSON, David A. ROE, Stephen SCHNEIDER, William SFORMO, Todd SMITH, Frank TAPE, Ken WENDLING, Neesha WILSON, Elana WOHLFORTH, Charles WOO, Ming-ko YANG, Daqing ZHANG, Tingjun ZARNKE, Randall L ZIKER, John

To view a complete list of speakers, click here.

Tingjun Zhang
National Snow and Ice Data Center
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
University of Colorado at Boulder
2300 Arapahoe Ave, #228
Boulder, CO 80302
Phone: 303-492-5236
Fax: 303-492-2468
Email: tzhang@nsidc.org

Dr. Tingjun Zhang is a senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), part of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), at the University of Colorado Boulder. Zhang earned a B.S. in 1980 and a M.S. in 1984 in Physical Geography from Lanzhou University, and another M.S. (1989) and his Ph.D. (1993) in Geophysics from the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks. He has published more than 60 peer reviewed journal articles and numerous peer-reviewed and referred scientific conference proceedings articles, book chapters, and book reviews.

Zhang’s research interests focus on land surface processes in cold seasons and cold regions, especially on snow cover, permafrost, seasonally frozen ground, and their impacts on cold regions climate and hydrological cycle. He has worked on permafrost and climate change over the Alaskan North Slope, global distribution of permafrost and seasonally frozen ground, and changes in permafrost conditions in Siberia. Most recently, Zhang worked with colleagues on permafrost and railroad construction on the Tibetan Plateau and on changes in permafrost conditions on the Russian arctic hydrological cycle. His new work includes mapping seasonal and annual variations of seasonally frozen ground in the northern hemisphere through satellite remote sensing and numerical modeling. Zhang believes it is essential to inform the scientific community and general public that these changes will have direct impact on our society and proper measures should be taken as soon as possible.

Zhang has given lectures to college students, seminars for graduate students, and oral presentations at various national and international scientific conferences and workshops. He has also delivered lectures and seminars to the general public at various libraries in the Boulder area and from time to time to k-12 school kids, primarily for the 4th grade and up.
Representative lecture titles include:

1. Global distribution of permafrost and seasonally frozen ground and their environmental impacts (targeted for graduate students and general public);
   
2. Changes in permafrost conditions and their impact on hydrological cycle in Siberia (targeted for scientific community);
3. Riding the Tibetan Express: Permafrost and Railroad Construction on the Tibetan Plateau (targeted for graduate students and general public); and
   
4. Re-construction of the past climate change using deep borehole soil temperature gradients: promises and problems (targeted for scientific community).

Zhang is interested in participating in the Arctic Visiting Speakers’ Series because it is critical to inform the public that the changes in frozen ground conditions have direct impacts on our society and human activities. It is also equally important that knowledge should be transferred to the next generation of scientists and engineers.