Charles Jackson, Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1998
Research Scientist
Institute for Geophysics
Jackson School of Geosciences

CONTACT INFORMATION
Office: 512-471-0401
E-mail: charles@ig.utexas.edu

WEB PAGE
http://www.ig.utexas.edu/people/staff/charles/

BIOGRAPHY
Upon completing his post-doctoral appointment as a visiting scientist to Princeton University in 2000, Charles Jackson came to the University of Texas at Austin. Jackson is interested in the interpretation of modern and paleoclimate observational data in terms of the physics of the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and their coupling. His primary research tools are complex computer models of the climate system and various simplified models that are sometimes more useful for isolating processes of interest. Jackson?s research program has been highlighted at the UT Texas Advanced Computing Center. He was named a National Academy of Sciences Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow in 2006. Jackson is interested in the interpretation of modern and paleoclimate observational data in terms of the physics of the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and their coupling. His primary research tools are complex computer models of the climate system and various simplified models that are sometimes more useful for isolating processes of interest. In collaboration with Mrinal Sen, Paul Stoffa, and a postdoctoral fellow (all at UTIG), Jackson is developing new methods that use modern and paleoclimate data to systematically and efficiently identify and quantify sources of climate model uncertainty. Jackson is also interested in answering how glacial cycles occur and the processes that caused or amplified the episodes of extreme climate variability during the last glacial cycle (~120 to 10 thousand years ago). Jackson has examined how the collapse of part of the Laurentide ice sheet, which covered Canada during the last glacial cycle, could facilitate episodes of climate variability on millennial time scales through its control over the atmosphere's circulation. He has worked closely with researchers at NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory to model the climate system's response to continuous changes in Earth's orbital geometry over the last 165 thousand years. He currently is working closely with Rob Scott and Fred Taylor (of UTIG) on using Tropical Pacific corals to understand how the Tropics may participate in global climate change events during the Holocene (10 ka to present).