Without a doubt, the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the most active and costly on record. Some link an increase in hurricane intensity to increasing tropical sea surface temperatures. Yet there is no consensus in the scientific community and the debate continues on whether global warming is the cause of recent natural disasters.

Dr. Judith Curry, professor and chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology, will discuss "Hurricanes and Global Warming: The Science, Technologies and Politics" at a Colloquium at 2 p.m. Thursday, April 6, in the Langley Research Center Reid Conference Center.

Media who wish to interview Curry at a press briefing at 1:15 p.m. Thursday should contact Marny Skora at 864-3315 or 344-6111 by noon for credentials and entry on to the Center.

Dr. Curry earned a doctoral degree in atmospheric science from the University of Chicago. Prior to joining the faculty at Georgia Tech, she held faculty positions at the University of Colorado, Penn State University and Purdue University.

Dr. Curry's interests include air-sea interactions, climate feedback processes associated with clouds and sea ice, and application of satellite data to interpreting recent variations in the climate data record. She currently serves on the National Academies Climate Group.

She is the author of the book Thermodynamics of Atmospheres and Oceans, editor for the Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences and has published over 130 refereed journal articles. She is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and the American Geophysical Union. In 1992, she received the AMS' prestigious Henry Houghton Award.

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