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CORVALLIS, Ore. - Two prominent Oregon State University scientists have been named lead authors for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report, which will be issued in 2013.

Peter Clark, an OSU professor of geosciences who studies glaciers to learn about climate change, and Philip Mote, who directs the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute at OSU, will begin working with colleagues from around the world on the much-anticipated follow-up to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, which garnered a share of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

The new report, "Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis," has 29 coordinating lead authors (eight from the United States) and 179 lead authors (49 from the U.S.). Clark is a coordinating lead author for the chapter on sea level change; Mote is a lead author on cryosphere observations, and will focus on snow.

Mote also was a lead author for the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report.

Other topics that will be addressed in the report include atmosphere and surface; oceans; paleoclimate; carbon and other biogeochemical cycles; clouds and aerosols; anthropogenic and natural radiative forcing; climate models; detection and attribution of climate change; projections and predictability; long-term climate change; and climate phenomena.

Clark is a paleoclimatologist who studies glaciers and ice sheets to learn about past climate changes, their causes and effects, and better understand the mechanisms that could affect current and future climate - including the potential for very rapid climate changes and rising sea levels. As one of two coordinating lead authors, he will direct the efforts of a dozen scientists from the U.S., France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Fiji and India - all looking at the critical aspect of sea level change.

Mote, a professor in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, came to OSU in 2009 to lead the new Oregon Climate Change Research Institute, an entity created by the Oregon legislature, run by the Oregon University System and housed at OSU. He is a climatologist whose work focuses on the impacts of climate change including snowpacks, sea levels, water resources, wildfire and adaptation strategies.