The Urbino Summer School in Paleoclimatology: Investing in the future of paleoclimatology

Improving our understanding of global climate dynamics is increasingly critical as we continue to perturb the Earth system on geologically rapid time-scales. One approach is the modeling of climate dynamics; another is the exploitation of natural archives of climate history. To promote the synergistic integration of these approaches in the next generation of paleoclimatologists, a group of international teacher-scholars have developed the Urbino Summer School in Paleoclimatology (USSP), which has been offered since 2004 at the Università degli Studi di Urbino in Urbino, Italy. The USSP provides international graduate students with an intensive three-week experience in reconstructing the history and dynamics of climate through an integrated series of lectures, investigations, and field and laboratory analyses. Complementing these formal components, informal scientific discussions and collaborations are promoted among faculty and students through group meals, coffee breaks, socials, and evening presentations. The first week begins with a broad overview of climate history and dynamics, and then focuses on the principles and methods that transform geographically- and materially-diverse data into globally time-ordinated paleoclimatic information. Lectures largely serve as “connective tissue” for student-centered investigations that use ocean drilling data and student-collected field data from the spectacular exposures of the surrounding Umbre-Marche Basin. The second week provides sessions and investigations on various biotic and geochemical proxies, and marks the start of student “working groups,” each of whom focus on current understanding of, and outstanding questions regarding, a particular geologic time-interval. Parallel sessions also commence, wherein students self-select to attend one of three concurrently-offered more specialized topics. The third week is an intensive exploration of geochemical, climate, and ocean modeling that stresses the integration of paleoclimate modeling and proxy data. The third week also includes the “Cioppino” conference comprised of lectures by experts from various fields that presenting “new and exciting ideas for digestion.” The course concludes with a series of lectures, discussion, and student presentations examining the relevance of paleoclimate to understanding modern climate dynamics and anthropogenic impacts. Student costs are increasingly being reduced per capita through governmental/institutional underwriting and individually through competitive awards (e.g., recent NSF USSP scholarships). Based on student and faculty evaluations, the current USSP structure appears largely optimized for our initial goal of promoting the integration of paleoclimate proxy data and modeling. Current planning efforts focus on strengthening course connections to Anthropocene issues and managing the large number of international faculty who donate their time and energy as an investment in the future of paleoclimatology.