Dr. Jim White is the current Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. He joined the faculty in 1989 in Geological Sciences and the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR). He is fascinated with how the world works and has focused his research on climate dynamics and the cycling of carbon between the atmosphere, the biosphere and the ocean, spending many summers in Greenland drilling ice cores and many days and nights building up the Stable Isotope Lab and partnering with NOAA. He is a devout inter-disciplinarian and founded the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Colorado-Boulder in 1995. He directed INSTAAR prior to taking his current position. His work has helped to further our understanding of abrupt climate change and the dynamics of the modern carbon cycle. Throughout his career he has strived to combine the social sciences and humanities with the natural sciences to better address issues of humans and the environment.