Leading climate scientist Michael E. Mann leaving Penn State for UPenn. Here’s why
Decorated Penn State climate scientist Michael E. Mann — who reportedly inspired Leonardo DiCaprio’s role in the Netflix film “Don’t Look Up” — is soon set to leave Happy Valley for a new position.
Mann, 56, who’s worked at Penn State the last 16 years, will take on a new role at the University of Pennsylvania starting Sept. 1, according to a Tuesday announcement from UPenn. He will lead the new Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media (PCSSM), in addition to joining faculty as a presidential distinguished professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science, with a secondary appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication, which is home to FactCheck.org.
He intends to continue working at Penn State through August.
“It certainly was nothing about Penn State; I’ve very much enjoyed my time here,” Mann told the CDT. “I love the university, the community; great colleagues, great students. And so it’s not without some sadness that I leave that behind.
“But, after 16 years, I sort of felt like I was ready for the next challenge. And Penn came to me, frankly, with an offer I couldn’t refuse. They really wanted to provide me the resources to do something pretty exciting here.”
What is Penn State losing?
Mann is a well-known climate scientist who started making headlines even before he arrived at Penn State.
In 1998, Mann and two other researchers published a paper in the scientific journal “Nature” that sent ripples throughout the scientific community, eventually drawing ire from the right and praise from the left in the political world. In the paper, Mann and Co. reconstructed 600 years of global temperature data — expanded to 1,000 years in 1999 — and showed temps gradually decreasing until around 1900, when they dramatically spiked upward, making the graph resemble a “hockey stick.”
That worrying “hockey stick graph” was later included in a separate United Nations-related report, before it made an appearance in former vice president Al Gore’s film, “An Inconvenient Truth.” The graph helped show impending environmental catastrophe and, in 2007, Gore and the U.N. organization jointly shared the Nobel Peace Prize — thanks, partly, to Mann’s work.
Detractors have attempted to discredit Mann’s work without success. One recent video, watched thousands of times, painted Mann as an alarmist who used “fake science.” (The video’s creator worked at the Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee, whose namesake was a conspiracy theorist who also thought 9/11 was an inside job and that Queen Elizabeth was part of the international drug trade.) Media outlet Reuters spoke to other climate scientists and concluded Mann’s research remained accurate.
In addition to that work, Mann has contributed much to the field. He authored more than 200 peer-viewed publications, wrote five books and co-founded the award-winning website RealClimate.org. Despite death threats and other threats of violence, he has continued to remain outspoken on the impact of his research, in addition to serving on a number of advisory boards. He was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2020.
“Michael Mann has done groundbreaking work on the attribution of extreme weather to climate change and many other aspects of climate science that are of central importance to climate policy,” Steven J. Fluharty, Penn’s Dean of Arts & Sciences, said in a written statement. “He is also a gifted and fearless communicator, providing patient, clear and informed explanations even in the most hostile media environments. His appointment will transform Penn’s growing strength in climate science and policy.”
What did Mann say about PSU, moving?
When asked about his proudest achievement at Penn State, Mann didn’t hesitate — but he also didn’t point toward any of his published works or numerous awards.
Instead, he said the most gratifying part has been watching his former students flourish.
“There’s nothing that is more rewarding as a professor and an academic than that student you had, 10-15 years ago, who comes back to you and gets in touch with you,” he said, “and sort of updates you about what they’re doing so you see how they’ve flourished and how they’ve found their calling and their voice. To me, that’s extremely rewarding.”
He pointed to one specific student who recently approached him. She struggled with math and physics as an undergrad, asked him for help — and she eventually went on to finish graduate school before becoming a respected professional in the field.
“It’s just wonderful to see that happen,” Mann added.
Even when Mann does start his tenure at Penn, the Massachusetts native won’t completely be saying good-bye to State College and University Park.
His wife remains a Penn State faculty member, and his daughter attends State College Area. So, for now, they’ll be staying in Happy Valley. Mann expects to return from Philadelphia “fairly often”
In the meantime, he knows moving on won’t be without some difficulty. But he wanted to thank the community for embracing him all these years.
“I thank Penn State and the community for the wonderful 16 years that I’ve been at Penn State, which sort of took me from the early part of my career to the latter part of my career,” he said. “And, you know, I’ve absolutely no regrets about the time I’ve spent here. So, again, it’s not without some sadness that I say so long to some of my colleagues and friends and embrace this new adventure.”
