David Archer is a computational ocean chemist at the University of Chicago. He has published research on the carbon cycle of the ocean and the sea floor, at present, in the past, and in the future. The ocean contains fifty times more carbon than does the atmosphere, and the ocean controls the CO 2 concentration of the atmosphere on time scales of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years. The atmospheric pCO 2 that the ocean chooses depends on all kinds of things, such as the effect of phytoplankton on the chemistry of surface waters, and the effect of CaCO 3 dissolution and production on the pH of the ocean. Dr. Archer has worked on the ongoing mystery of the low atmospheric CO 2 concentration during glacial time 20,000 years ago, and on the fate of fossil fuel CO 2 on geologic time scales in the future, and its impact on future ice age cycles, ocean methane hydrate decomposition, and coral reefs. Archer is writing a textbook for non-science major undergraduates called "Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast" to be published by Blackwell.

Cecilia Bitz is an assistant professor in the Atmospheric Sciences Department at University of Washington. Her research focuses on climate and climate change in high latitudes, especially involving snow and ice. Natural interactions among the atmosphere, ocean, and cryosphere form the foundation of climate variability on the timescale of the rise and fall of civilizations. Presently humans are altering the climate system faster than any natural change in the past 10,000 years. One of Cecilia's recent publications offers an explanation for why Arctic sea ice is retreating rapidly in summer, but not in winter. She has also written about the near absence of warming and sea ice retreat in the Antarctic. The primary tools for her work are a variety of climate models, from simple reduced models to sophisticated climate system models.

Christine Hulbe completed his PhD in Geophysics at University of Chicago in 1998 and is currently professor of Geophysics at Portland State University. Her awards include the 2003-2004 Portland State University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, John Elliot Allen Outstanding Teaching Award in Geology and a 1998 NRC Research Associateship with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Her research focuses on Ice Shelves, specifically the Ross Ice Shelf, the Heinrich-Event icebergs and the Brunt Ice Shelf along the Caird Coast, Antarctica. Her work is supported by research grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation and NASA.