On occasion of the CAS’s Einstein Lecturer Plan, Prof Dr. Stephen C. Porter of the Washington University was invited by Prof Yao Tandong to talk about his work on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau study in the ITP in Beijing on Sept. 20, 2007.

Tending to shed light on the quaternary environment on the Qinghai lake terrace, Prof Porter evolved his topic around the following six paleoclimatic proxies, namely 1)Bajada alluvium, 2)loess, 3)ice-wedge casts and involutions, 4)outwash gravel, 5)beach ridges, offshore bars, and wave-cut cliff and 6)dune sands, paleosols and archeology. His illustration was vivid and clear, propositions cautious and down-to-earth, though the results he showed to the ITP scientific staff were only preliminary. Aroused by his topic, some professors as well as students were also involved in the discussion with him in their interested questions, invoking further thoughts related to interdisciplinary studies on the Plateau.

A life-time glaciologist and Quaternary scientist, Prof. Porter has long been in cooperation with Chinese scientists, in particular, Chinese academician An Zhisheng. Their cooperation has borne fruit in loess studies, as well as studies of the interaction between glacier evolution and loess invasion on the northeastern part of the Plateau. Their achievements have been published on top-notch journals as Science and Nature, calling for more scientific attention and focus on this area.