Franco Biondi, director of the University's DendroLab and associate professor of physical geography, was selected to serve on a National Academy of Sciences committee, recently formed to advise Congress on current scientific consensus regarding surface temperatures for the past 2,000 years.

Geoscientists look at data from ice cores, boreholes, tree rings, coral reefs, archival documents, as well as ocean and lake sediments, to reconstruct temperatures from time periods when there were no thermometers, or when thermometers were not widely used, according to Biondi, a tree ring expert.

Besides Biondi, eleven other nationally and internationally recognized experts on paleoclimate reconstructions were chosen to be part of this special committee, which will operate under the auspices of the Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate of the National Research Council.

The National Academy of Sciences was signed into being by President Abraham Lincoln on March 3, 1863 to investigate and advise the federal government on scientific issues whenever called upon.