Peter T. Doran, Ph.D. is Professor of Geology and Geophysics and John Franks Endowed Chair at

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

. Prior to 2015, he was faculty in Earth and Environmental Sciences at the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the University of Illinois ...

. Doran specializes in polar regions, especially Antarctic

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologic ...

and ecosystems. Doran was the lead author of a research paper about

Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...

temperatures that was published in the journal ''Nature'' in January 2002. Because he and his colleagues found that some parts of Antarctica had cooled between 1964 and 2000, his paper has been frequently cited by opponents of the

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

theory, such as

Ann Coulter Ann Hart Coulter (; born December 8, 1961) is an American conservative media pundit, author, syndicated columnist, and lawyer. She became known as a media pundit in the late 1990s, appearing in print and on cable news as an outspoken critic of ...

and Michael Crichton. In an opinion piece in the July 27, 2006 ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', Doran characterized this as a "misinterpretation" and stated, "I have never thought such a thing ... I would like to remove my name from the list of scientists who dispute global warming." (The temporary phenomenon is related to the "hole" in the ozone. As the "hole heals" the Antarctic will dramatically warm quickly. ) Doran and his graduate student Maggie Kendall Zimmerman also publishe
a paper
in the January 27, 2009 issue of ''Eos'' showing that active climate researchers almost unanimously agree (97.4%) that humans have had a significant impact on the Earth's climate. This was the first of three different studies by three different groups to establish this scientific consensus figure of 97 to 98% agreement, the others being Anderegg et al. (2010) and Cook et al. (2013). Doran also applies his expertise in extreme polar environments to planetary science and has led and been a member of several NASA-funded projects using polar regions as analogs for Mars and icy/ocean worlds. He was nominated by former Apollo astronaut Harrison Schmidt to be a member of the Planetary Protection Subcommittee of the NASA Advisory Council in 2008 and served until 2017. In 2018 he was appointed to represent the U.S. as a member of the

Committee on Space Research The Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) was established on October 3, 1958 by the International Council for Scientific Unions (ICSU). Among COSPAR's objectives are the promotion of scientific research in space on an international level, wi ...

(COSPAR
Panel on Planetary Protection
In 2022 he was made Vice Chair of the Panel. Both an Antarctic stream and glacier were named for Doran by the

U.S. Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and ...

to commemorate his many significant research contributions conducted on the continent. Doran was elected as a Fellow of the Geological Society of America in 2018.

Education

Doran attended Northern Secondary School in Toronto. He did his undergraduate at

Trent University Trent University is a public liberal arts university in Peterborough, Ontario, with a satellite campus in Oshawa, which serves the Regional Municipality of Durham. Trent is known for its Oxbridge college system and small class sizes.

in Peterborough Ontario, his Master of Science at Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario and moved to the U.S. in 1992 for a Ph.D. in Hydrology and Hydrogeology at the

University of Nevada, Reno The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a public land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant institution. It was founded on October 12, ...

Personal life

Peter Doran was born and raised in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Canada. His father, Terence Doran, was a renowned gynecologist and obstetrician with a private practice and a faculty position at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

, and was a pioneer of prenatal diagnosis.

Most Cited Publications

McKnight, D.M., E.W. Boyer, P.K. Westerhoff, P.T. Doran, et al. 2001. Spectrofluorometric characterization of dissolved organic matter for indication of precursor organic material and aromaticity. Limnology and Oceanography 46 (1), 38-48.
Cook, J., N. Oreskes, P.T. Doran, W.R.L. Anderegg, B. Verheggen et al. 2016. Consensus on consensus: a synthesis of consensus estimates on human-caused global warming. Environmental Research Letters 11 (4), 048002 1502.
Doran, P.T. and M.K. Zimmerman. 2009. Examining the scientific consensus on climate change. Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union 90 (3), 22-23.
Doran, P.T., J.C Priscu, W.B. Lyons, J.E. Walsh, A.G. Fountain, D.M, McKnight, et al. 2002. Antarctic climate cooling and terrestrial ecosystem response. Nature 415 (6871), 517-520.

References

External links

Scientists Cry Foul!
interview of Doran on On the Media, a

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

program, February 16, 2002
Antarctic cooling, global warming?

RealClimate ''RealClimate'' is a commentary site (blog) on climatology. The site's contributors include climate scientists whose goal is to provide a response to developing stories and a context they feel is sometimes missing in mainstream commentary o ...

, December 3, 2004
Antarctic climate cooling and terrestrial ecosystem response
Doran, et al. in the journal ''Nature'' January 31, 2002
Cold Pursuits: A Scientist's Quest to Uncover Antarctica's Secrets
December 2018 video created by

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

on Doran's Antarctic research {{DEFAULTSORT:Doran, Peter Living people University of Illinois Chicago faculty American earth scientists American Antarctic scientists Planetary scientists 1960 births