Malcolm K. Hughes, Ph.D., is professor of dendrochronology at the University of Arizona.

Hughes's research is designed to address the question "How and why does climate vary on interannual to century time scales?" He describes his research strategy as contributing to the building of large-scale (continental to global) networks of 'proxy' climate records with defined chronology, temporal resolution and climate signal.

Hughes conducts his research by:

• establishing new kinds of tree ring records of past environments (new species, new regions, new variables from cell-size to combined ring width, density and isotope);
• improving understanding of physical and biological mechanisms that produce these records;
• developing techniques for combining different kinds of records (tree ring, ice core, historical, coral, laminated sediments, etc., etc.) in order to better 'thencast' the behavior of the climate system;
• using these networks and 'thencasts' to raise questions about the behavior of the climate system. For example, was there really a global Medieval Warm Period? Is that question meaningful? Was the late 20th century unusually warm on a global scale compared to the last 1000 or 2000 years? Are the oscillations we now see in the climate system (Pacific Decadal Oscillation North Atlantic Oscillation, etc.) robust, long-term features of the climate system? How do 20th and 21st century droughts in the West compare with the range of variability of recent millennia? What controls variability in drought extent, persistence and intensity?

Hughes's experiences as Director of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research have involved representing an interdisciplinary group whose interests range from the archeology of the American Southwest, the relevance of records of the past to questions of fire and water resources, and Paleoclimatology at local to global scales.

He earned his B.Sc. in botany and zoology from the University of Durham and his Ph.D. from the University of Durham in ecosystem ecology.

Among his honors, Hughes from 1969-71 was a University Fellow, University of Durham, UK; in 1992-93 a Visiting Fellow, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of. Colorado-Boulder; in 1998 a fellow of the American Geophysical Union; and in1999-2000 the Bullard Fellow at Harvard University. He has more than 100 publications, most in peer-reviewed journals.

Hughes has served as a member of the U.S. National Committee for the International Union for Quaternary Research, and as a member of Department of Energy, NOAA and NSF advisory panels. He has served also as a member of the American Meteorological Society's Biometeorology Committee, as a member of the U.S. delegation at the 1997 World Climate Research Program in Geneva, Switzerland; and as vice president international Tree-Ring Society.