January 2008 NUI Galway Climate Expert Awarded Higher Doctorate by Leading UK University

Dr Colin O'Dowd, School of Physics, and Director of the Environmental Change Institute's Centre for Climate & Air Pollution Studies at NUI Galway, has been awarded a Doctorate in Science from the University of Manchester.

The award was in recognition of highly distinguished published work resulting from research into atmospheric aerosols and their role in climate change. Dr O'Dowd has made a substantial, sustained and original contribution to knowledge and scholarship, and holds an authoritative international standing in his field of research. His research papers presented for the Doctorate of Science are regarded as having made the substantive part of the most significant advances in atmosphere aerosol research over the past twenty years.

Dr O'Dowd directs the Centre for Climate & Air Pollution Studies (C-CAPS) in NUI Galway's Environmental Change Institute. Recently, C-CAPS secured significant research funding (in excess of €3 million) from the HEA, EPA and the Marine Institute in a series of research projects coordinated by Dr O'Dowd. The research focuses on aerosol-cloud-climate interactions, air-sea exchange of CO2 and ozone and regional climate modelling. The overarching aim of O'Dowd's research is to understand fundamental processes controlling climate change and air pollution and to build the most advanced climate prediction tools to provide accurate assessments of future climate change for Ireland.

ends