Ross Powell has been a professor of geosciences at Northern Illinois University since 1980. He earned a BSc and MSc from Victoria University in New Zealand and a PhD from Ohio State University.
He and his students have conducted scientific research on every continent. His primary research focus has been in the northern and southern polar and high latitudes, where the effects of climate change are being amplified. He also has been on numerous national and international scientific advising and planning committees.
His primary concerns from a scientific and social perspective are the effects of human activity on changing Earth’s environments, especially through global warming.