MEMBER SIGN IN
Not a member? Become one today!
         iBerkshires     Williamstown Chamber     Williams College     Your Government     Land & Housing Debate
Search
Williams Convocation Features Environmental Scientist
09:39PM / Thursday, September 05, 2013
Print | Email  

William Moomaw

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Williams College will present Bicentennial Medals at the fall convocation on Saturday, Sept. 7, to keynote speaker William Moomaw and five other alumni.

President Adam Falk and College Council co-Presidents Adrian Castro and Max Heninger, both seniors, will welcome the class of 2014 at the convocation, which formally launches the academic year. The event is free and open to the public and will begin at 11 a.m. in Chapin Hall after a formal procession.

Established in 1993 on the occasion of the college's 200th anniversary, Bicentennial Medals honor members of the Williams community for distinguished achievement in any field of endeavor.

Moomaw, class of 1959, is a policy scientist working to address global warming and climate change through international environmental policy. In addition to Moomaw, those receiving medals will be Mariam Naficy (1991), Internet entrepreneur, e-commerce pioneer, and founder and president of Minted.com; John Sayles (1972) and Maggie Renzi (1973), creative partners and pioneers in independent film; Doug Shulman (1989), former IRS commissioner and now a Brookings Institution scholar; and Michael S. Weiner (1983), executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association and a pivotal figure in collective bargaining.

The ceremony will include the introduction of the newest members of Phi Beta Kappa and the announcement of the winner of the Grosvenor Cup Award, given to the senior who has best demonstrated concern for the college community. The ceremony will also include a marimba performance by class musician and senior Casey McLellan, who will play an original arrangement of J.S. Bach's Prelude from Lute Suite in C minor, BWV 997.

Moomaw was retired in May from a professorship in international environmental policy at Tufts University. He was founder and former director of the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy, which he established in 1992, as part of The Fletcher School. A chemist turned policy scientist, his work and research have focused on stratospheric ozone, climate, energy, forests, water, and sustainable development.

He has served as a lead author for five Intergovernmental Panels on Climate Change reports and coordinated the 2010 IPCC report "Renewable Energy and Climate Change." In 2007, he was a member of the United Nations-established IPCC that shared with Al Gore a Nobel Prize for its work on climate change research and policy. He is co-author of The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, which reports on forest financing, and serves on the Integrated Nitrogen Committee of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Science Advisory Board.

His work extends abroad, as he has prepared policy papers for the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat and serves as director of faculty of the International Programme in the Management of Sustainability, held annually in the Netherlands. He has advised corporations, governments, and the World Bank on climate, energy and forest issues. After graduating from Williams in 1959, Moomaw earned his doctorate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and taught in the Williams chemistry department from 1964 to 1990.

Comments
More Featured Stories
Williamstown.com is owned and operated by: Boxcar Media 102 Main Sreet, North Adams, MA 01247 -- T. 413-663-3384
© 2011 Boxcar Media LLC - All rights reserved