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CORVALLIS - George Taylor, the state climatologist at Oregon State University, will discuss the great flood of 1996 during a free public lecture on Thursday, June 6, in Portland.

The talk is part of the OSU Over Lunch series, which brings prominent OSU faculty and administrators to Portland.

Taylor's talk, "The Flood of 1996," will begin at 12:15 p.m. at the bridge level of Two World Trade Center, S.W. First and Taylor in Portland. It is free and open to the public. Admission will be charged to a buffet lunch that begins at 11:30 a.m.

During his lecture, Taylor will discuss why the flood happened, what Oregonians can learn from the experience, and whether it may happen again. The OSU atmospheric scientist has said that Oregon is coming out of a prolonged "dry cycle" of climate - and that the state appears to be heading into a wet 20-year cycle.

As state climatologist, Taylor is responsible for weather and climate date archives for the state of Oregon, and he has access to a vast array of historical climate data. He has been at the university since 1989, joining the OSU faculty after serving as president and chief scientist of Santa Barbara Softworks.

Taylor also has been an air quality analyst, a researcher, and a meteorologist. He has written more than 200 scientific reports, journal articles and symposium papers.

For more information about the talk, contact OSU's Portland Center at 503-725-5751.