Charles Jackson is interested in the interpretation of modern and paleoclimate observational data in terms of the physics of the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and their coupling. His primary research tools are complex computer models of the climate system and various simplified models that are sometimes more useful for isolating processes of interest.
In collaboration with colleagues Mrinal Sen and Paul Stoffa at the Institute for Geophysics and Gabriel Huerta at the University of New Mexico, Charles is developing new methods that use modern and paleoclimate data to systematically and efficiently identify and quantify sources of climate model uncertainty. Charles is also interested in answering how glacial cycles occur and the processes that caused or amplified the episodes of extreme climate variability during the last glacial cycle (~120 to 10 thousand years ago). Charles has examined how the collapse of part of the Laurentide ice sheet, which covered Canada during the last glacial cycle, could facilitate episodes of climate variability on millennial time scales through its control over the atmosphere's circulation. He has worked closely with researchers at NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory to model the climate system's response to continuous changes in Earth's orbital geometry over the last 165 thousand years.
Ph.D.
in Geophysical Science, The University of Chicago, 1998
B.S.
in Physics, Haverford College, 1992
global warming, abrupt climate change, sea level rise, ocean mixing, Bayesian Inference, inverse modeling, simulation, climate projections, uncertainty quantification
Committee Member,
UTIG Computational Scientist Search, (2020)
Chair,
Jackson School Endowment Committee, (2019 - 2020)
Committee Member,
DGS Climate Faculty Search, (2018 - 2019)
Committee Member,
UTIG Director Search, (2018 - 2019)
Committee Member,
Jackson School Endowment Committee, (2017 - 2020)
Chair,
UTIG Graduate Fellowships Committee, (2012 - 2018)
Participant,
Expert Meeting on Assessing and Combining Multi-Model Climate Projections, IPCC (2010)
Associate Editor,
Associate Editor, Reviews of Geophysics (2005 - 2010)
Contributed,
Development of a topography-smoothing package, GFDL/NOAA's Flexible Modeling System (2002)
Associate Editor,
Associate Editor, Geophysical Research Letters (2001 - 2004)
Member,
American Meterological Society
Member,
American Geophysical Union
Directors Circle of Excellence
- University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (2014 - 2014)
Directors Circle of Excellence
- University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (2013 - 2013)
Directors Circle of Excellence
- University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (2012 - 2012)
Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow
- National Academy of Sciences (2006)
Young Investigator Award
- Jackson School of Geosciences (2005 - 2006)
Non-convective precipitation and the law of unintended consequences,
UTIG Seminar Series, Austin, Texas (2020)
Non-convective precipitation and the law of unintended consequences,
Northwest Pacific National Laboratory, Richland, WA (2020)
Non-convective precipitation and the law of unintended consequences,
UT Department of Geological Sciences, Austin, Texas (2020)
Non-convective precipitation and the law of unintended consequences,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN (2020)
Likelihood of abrupt climate change,
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX (2019)
Quantifying Risk within Single Model Ensembles,
University of Leeds, Leeds, UK (2019)
Statistical approaches to (un)learning how cloud feedbacks work,
UK Met Office, Exeter, UK (2019)
Inverse Modeling the Greenland Ice Core Record of Abrupt Climate Change in a World of Uncertain Physics,
Tokyo University Tamura Symposium, Tokyo, Japan (2006)