One of the nation’s leading climate scientists explains how he goes about knocking down the “zombie theories” that plague our discussions about climate change.

One of the nation’s leading climate scientists explains how he goes about knocking down the “zombie theories” that plague our discussions about climate change. What is a zombie theory? Says Shepherd: “It’s one of those theories that scientists have refuted or disproven time and time again, but they live on like zombies in the blogs and on the radio stations.”

As the 2013 president of the American Meteorological Society, Shepherd is a leading international expert in weather, climate and atmospheric sciences, and recently briefed the U.S. Senate on climate and extreme weather.

A professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Georgia, Shepherd is director of the University’s Atmospheric Sciences Program. Shepherd spent 12 years as a research meteorologist in the Earth-Sun Division at NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center.

Shepherd was recently named the UGA Athletic Association Professor in Geography and 2004 was honored at the White House by President Bush with a PECASE award as one of the top young scientists and engineers in the country.