Melissa Hopkinson, Ph.D.

Courses Taught

GEOG 1112 Introduction to Weather and Climate
GEOG 1112L Introduction to Weather and Climate Lab
GEOG 1111K Introduction to Physical Geography
GEOG 1102 World Regional Geography
GEOG 1350K Introduction to Oceanography

Education

Ph.D., Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego
B.A., Northwestern University

Research/Special Interests

Dr. Hopkinson is currently interested the communication of climate science - both in the classroom and in our communities. She recently took part in the Georgia Climate Research Roadmap, a project that identified the top 40 climate research questions for Georgia. Her previous research focused on the analysis of inert gas concentrations in air bubbles ice cores. She used these concentrations to determine climatic and oceanographic conditions during the last Ice Age.

Publications

*name changed from Headly to Hopkinson

Rudd, M.A., Moore, A.F.P., Rochberg, D. et al. Environmental Management, 62: 190. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-018-1051-4, 2018.

Orsi, AJ, Kawamura, K, Fegyveresi JM, Headly* MA, Alley, RB, Severinghaus, J. Differentiating bubble-free layers from melt layers in ice cores using noble gases, Journal of Glaciology, Volume 61, Issue 227, p. 585-594, 2015.

Severinghaus, JP, Beaudette R, Headly* MA, Taylor K, Brook EJ, Oxygen-18 of O2 Records the Impact of Abrupt Climate Change on the Terrestrial Biosphere, Science, 324:1431-1434, 10.1126/science.1169473 , 2009.

Petrenko, VV, Severinghaus JP, Brook EJ, Muhle J, Headly* M, Harth CM, Schaefer H, Reeh N, Weiss RF, Lowe D, Smith AM, A novel method for obtaining very large ancient air samples from ablating glacial ice for analyses of methane radiocarbon, Journal of Glaciology, 54:233-244, 10.3189/002214308784886135, 2008.

Ahn, J., M.A. Headly*, M. Wahlen, E.J. Brook, P.A. Mayewski, and K.C. Taylor, CO2 diffusion in polar ice: Observations from the Siple Dome ice core, Antarctica, Journal of Glaciology, Vol. 54, No. 187, 2008.

Headly*, M.A., Severinghaus, J.P., A Method to Measure Kr/N2 Ratios in Air Bubbles Trapped in Ice Cores, and its Application in Reconstructing Past Mean Ocean Temperature, Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 112, D19105, doi: 10.1029/2006JD008317, 2007.

Work Experience

Lecturer, University of North Georgia, 2016 - present
Editor, American Journal Experts, Athens, GA, 2012 - 2014
Earth Science and Physical Science teacher, The Pennington School, Pennington, NJ, 2008 - 2010
Research Assistant, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 2001 - 2008

Personal Information

Dr. Hopkinson's favorite thing about working at UNG is the feeling of community and personal connections among faculty and students. She also likes how each campus retains its unique character while being part of one institution.