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Biography: Tamara Shapiro Ledley

Tamara Shapiro Ledley
Senior Scientist
617 873-9658
Tamara_Ledley@terc.edu

Program/Areas of Interest

Earth system science, climate change, use of scientific data in educational contexts, bridging the scientific and educational communities

TERC Projects

Biographical Summary

Dr. Tamara Shapiro Ledley, a senior scientist at TERC, received her PhD from MIT in 1983. She conducted a research program in Earth system science with an emphasis on the polar regions at Rice University for 15 years, and has authored over 30 scientific papers. The focus of her research has been to understand the role of sea ice and continental ice sheets in shaping global climate. Using energy balance climate and dynamic ice flow models she examined the impact of sea ice on the exchange of energy between the ocean and the atmosphere, the implications of changes in the sea ice cover for local and global climates, and the mechanisms that produced the growth and decay of ice sheets that define the 100,000 year ice age cycle.

Dr. Ledley has been involved in Earth system science education activities that include developing museum exhibits that bring near real time images of the Earth to the public; directing teacher training programs in the Earth sciences; developing Earth system science learning activities for the GLOBE program, and developing scientific research programs for the participation of students. Most recently she has been involved in a number of projects that focus on the National Digital Library efforts and facilitation of the use of Earth science data in educational contexts. Dr. Ledley received NSF National Science Digital Library grants to develop the Earth Exploration Toolbook (EET, serc.carleton.edu/eet), which is a resource that provides step-by-step instructions for the use of an Earth science dataset and data analysis tool by teachers in the classroom; and to run innovative professional development workshops focused on specific datasets and analysis tools in the EET. She has also received NSF grants to lead the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) Data Services and AccessData (serc.carleton.edu/usingdata/accessdata) projects that focus on bridging the communication gap between scientific and educational communities to make more Earth science datasets avaialble to teachers and students; and the Tools for Data Analysis in the Middle School Classroom (DataTools, serc.carleton.edu/eet/msdatatools) project that facilitates middle school teachers learning and adapting IT tools and Earth science data for use in the classroom.

Dr. Ledley is currently chair of Standing Committee for Education, and has served as Vice President for the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP Federation, www.esipfed.org) and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation of Earth Science for the ESIP Federation. She has also served as the chair of the Committee on Global and Environmental Chance of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and chair of the panel to draft the original AGU position statement on Climate Change and Greenhouse Gases.

Associations

American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Meteorological Society, American Geophysical Union, Federation of Earth Science Information Partners, National Association of Science Teachers, National Earth Science Teacher Association, The Oceanography Society