Gunther Weller

Born in Germany, Gunter Weller partly grew up in Australia when his family moved there in 1950 when he was fifteen years old. His scientific career spread from aeronautical engineering to meteorology to polar research. It began in 1961, when he spent a year doing research in Antarctica, and continued with his Ph.D in meteorology/glaciology at the University of Melbourne in Australia, and doing other research at various locations in Antarctica. In 1968, he moved to Alaska when he was hired as an assistant professor of geophysics at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). He became an internationally recognized authority on climate change, with his research reflecting the consequences of climate change in the Arctic on populations, industry, lifestyles and socio-economic conditions worldwide. Gunter held a variety of leadership positions at UAF, including, project director of the NASA-University of Alaska SAR facility from 1986 to 1993, deputy director of the  Geophysical Institute from 1984 to 1986 and 1990 to 1997, and director of the Center for Global Change and Arctic System Research. He also was program manager of the National Science Foundation's polar programs in meteorology in Washington, DC from 1972 to 1974, project manager of the Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment Program in the Arctic from 1975 to 1982, president of the International Commission on Polar Meteorology from 1980 to 1983, and chaired the JSA National Research Council's Polar Research Board from 1985 to 1990. Gunter retired in 1997, is Emeritus Professor of Geophysics at UAF, and has remained involved with climate change science, including being the Executive Director of the International Arctic Climate Impact Assessment project from 2000 and 2004. He also has lectured about climate change and polar science on cruise ships in Antarctica and the Arctic.