Entingfest, 2015

Mathematics in the Service of Physical Science:
A mini-symposium to mark the career of Ian Enting

Ian
On March 17, 2015, at CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Flagship, Aspendale, Victoria, we celebrated the career of Ian Enting by holding a unique conference in his honour.

Over his career, Ian Enting has made considerable contributions in the fields of Climate, Atmospheric Composition and Statistical Physics. The aims of this symposium were to:

  • Showcase these contributions in the one place;
  • Highlight the role of applied mathematics in these contributions;
  • Give some future perspective for the various fields.

Speakers at the symposium were Ian himself, Peter Rayner (the symposium organiser), Paul Krummel, David Etheridge, Roger Francey, Tony Guttmann, Cathy Trudinger, Nathan Clisby, Rachel Law, and Graeme Pearman. There were numerous other attendees, including Gary Newsam who made the trip from Adelaide.

The symposium schedule was:

9:30 Paul Krummel Welcome and logistics
9:45 Peter Rayner Introduction and biographical sketch
10:00 Roger Francey Historical perspective I
10:05 David Etheridge Historical perspective II
10:15 Tony Guttmann The quest for solubility
10:45 (coffee break)
11:15 Cathy Trudinger Past atmospheric composition
11:45 Nathan Clisby Lattice enumeration
12:15 Rachel Law Atmospheric inversions
12:45 (lunch break)
13:45 Peter Rayner Experimental design
14:15 Graeme Pearman Public engagement
14:45 Ian Enting Are we there yet? Some problems I never managed to solve

To find out more about Ian's illustrious and varied career, please visit his homepage, or have a look at Wikipedia, or search for his papers on Google Scholar.

Ian is the author of two books, Inverse problems in Atmospheric Constituent Transport (published in 2002 by Cambridge University Press) and Twisted (published in 2007 by Ian Enting, printed by Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute). Twisted: The distorted mathematics of greenhouse denial, exposes the numerous contradictions in the arguments of the “greenhouse sceptics” and suggests they are far from constituting an alternative to mainstream climate science. Unfortunately, Ian's lovely little book is as relevant in 2015 as it was in 2007.

If you represent an environmental organisation within Australia you are welcome to a free copy of Twisted. To obtain your copy, please send a stamped, self-addressed A4 envelope to Nathan Clisby, MASCOS, 139 Barry St, Carlton VIC 3053. As of May, 2015 postage costs $3.50 (please check postage costs after this date). It may be a good idea to include your contact details (e.g. email address) in the envelope in the event of any problems.

Also, Ian spoke about James Lovelock (formulator of the Gaia hypothesis) in 2009 as part of the The Monthly's Key Thinkers series.



Finally, here are a few photos!
Twisted in Antarctica TransCom 2001
Ian′s book “Twisted” at 2700m in Aurora Basin camp, Antarctica, 2013. Bushwalk near Melbourne during TransCom 2001.
IPCC report Ian before Ian after
Cover from IPCC report Climate Change 1994, of which Ian was a lead author. Photos of Ian from CRCSHM reports: left in 1995, after recently being appointed Program leader of “B2: Greenhouse Gases”, and right in 1996, after a year in the job!
Ian inspecting the mass spectrometer.
Ian carefully inspecting the mass spectrometer at CSIRO.


If you have any comments or (especially) photos please contact Nathan Clisby (clisby@gmail.com).