As of 2024, Schmidt heads NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.[5] He was named for the director position in June 2014 as its then deputy director, becoming to the third person to hold this post, which had been vacant after the retirement of
James E. Hansen.[6] In an interview with Science News, Schmidt said that he wanted to continue the institute's work on climate modeling and to expand its work on climate impacts and astrobiology.[7]
Research
His main research interest is climate variability, both its internal and the response to
climate forcing, investigated via ocean-atmosphere
general circulation models. He also uses these to study
palaeoclimate by working on methods to compare palaeo-data with model output. Schmidt helps to develop the
GISS ocean and coupled GCMs (ModelE). This model has been "isotopically enabled" to carry
oxygen-18 tracers, allowing the model to simulate the pattern of δ18O observed in
ice cores, cave records and ocean sediments.[2]
Media and outreach
Schmidt has appeared on various occasions in the media, often he is asked about his expertise on climate related study findings, current events or gives lectures.[2] Schmidt worked with the
American Museum of Natural History, the
College de France, and the
New York Academy of Sciences for education and outreach.[3] Schmidt and eight other colleagues founded in 2004 the
RealClimate blog. The blog provides critical commentary on climate science with the scope on outreach to the public and for journalists.[2][8] Additionally, the blog features frequent guest posts by experts in their field. Articles and commentary have defended scientific research against allegations made about the
hockey stick graph.[9] During the 2009-2010
Climatic Research Unit email controversy, he strongly defended the scientists involved, including
Michael E. Mann and
Phil Jones. Journalist
Fred Pearce noted, "Schmidt wrote that the emails merely showed how scientists interact in private", and that "Gravity isn't a useful theory because Newton was a nice man."[10]
Schmidt was EarthSky Science Communicator of the Year in 2011.[11]
He is the co-author, with Joshua Wolfe, of Climate Change: Picturing the Science (2009), which has a foreword by
Jeffrey D. Sachs. The book combines images of the
effects of climate change with scientific explanations.[17]
Schmidt, G.A., R. Ruedy, J.E. Hansen, I. Aleinov, N. Bell, M. Bauer, S. Bauer, B. Cairns, V. Canuto, Y. Cheng, A. Del Genio, G. Faluvegi, A.D. Friend, T.M. Hall, Y. Hu, M. Kelley, N.Y. Kiang, D. Koch, A.A. Lacis, J. Lerner, K.K. Lo, R.L. Miller, L. Nazarenko, V. Oinas, Ja. Perlwitz, Ju. Perlwitz, D. Rind, A. Romanou, G.L. Russell, Mki. Sato, D.T. Shindell, P.H. Stone, S. Sun, N. Tausnev, D. Thresher, and M.-S. Yao (2006).
"Present day atmospheric simulations using GISS ModelE: Comparison to in-situ, satellite and reanalysis data"(PDF). J. Climate. 19 (2): 153–192.
Bibcode:
2006JCli...19..153S.
doi:
10.1175/JCLI3612.1. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 2011-10-15.{{
cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)