Title: "It's worse and better than we thought: the meaning of global warming" Dr. Richard Alley is Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences and Associate of the Earth System Science Center at The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, where he has worked since 1988. He was graduated with the Ph.D. in 1987 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and with M.Sc. (1983) and B.Sc. (1980) degrees from The Ohio State University-Columbus, all in Geology. Dr. Alley teaches, and conducts research on the climatic records, flow behavior, and sedimentary deposits of large ice sheets, to aid in prediction of future changes in climate and sea level. His experience includes three field seasons in Antarctica, eight in Greenland, and three in Alaska. He awards include a Packard Fellowship, a Presidential Young Investigator Award, the Horton Award of the American Geophysical Union Hydrology Section and Fellowship in the Union, the Wilson Teaching Award of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and the Faculty Scholar Medal in Science at Penn State, the first Agassiz Medal of the European Geosciences Union Cryospheric Section, and the Seligman Crystal of the International Glaciological Society. Dr. Alley has served on a variety of advisory panels and steering committees for the National Science Foundation, targeted research activities, and professional societies, including the congressionally mandated Antarctic External Review Panel and the Polar Research Board, and has provided advice to numerous government officials in multiple administrations including a US Vice President, the President's Science Advisor, and a Senate Committee. Dr. Alley is happily married with two children, two cats and a minivan, and resides in a ranch house in State College, PA, where he coaches recreational soccer and occasionally plays some.