James D. Hays

{{Other people2||James Hays (disambiguation){{!}}James Hays}}

James D. Hays is a professor of Earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University's Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory.{{cite web|url=http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/academics/directory/jdh1-fac.html|title=Columbia SIPA - - School of International and Public Affairs|website=www.sipa.columbia.edu|access-date=2008-04-19}} Hays founded and led the CLIMAP project, which collected sea floor sediment data to study surface sea temperatures and paleoclimatological conditions 18,000 years ago.{{cite web|url=http://archaeology.about.com/od/cterms/g/climap.htm|title=What is the Culture-Historical Approach and Why Was it a Bad Idea?|last=Hirst|first=K. Kris|website=about.com|access-date=2008-04-19|archive-date=2005-09-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050922114204/http://archaeology.about.com/od/cterms/g/climap.htm|url-status=dead}}

Hays is best known as a co-author of the 1976 paper in Science,{{Cite journal | last1 = Hays | first1 = J. D. | last2 = Imbrie | first2 = J. | author-link2 = John Imbrie| last3 = Shackleton | first3 = N. J. | author-link3 = Nicholas Shackleton| doi = 10.1126/science.194.4270.1121 | title = Variations in the Earth's Orbit: Pacemaker of the Ice Ages | journal = Science| volume = 194 | issue = 4270 | pages = 1121–1132 | year = 1976 | pmid = 17790893| bibcode = 1976Sci...194.1121H| s2cid = 667291 }} "Variations in the Earth's orbit: Pacemaker of the ice ages." Using ocean sediment cores, the Science paper verified the theories of Milutin Milanković that oscillations in climate can be correlated with Earth's orbital variations of eccentricity, axial tilt, and precession around the Sun (see Milankovitch cycles).

He graduated from Columbia University with a Ph.D. in 1964, Ohio State University with a Master of Science in 1960 and Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts in 1956.{{cite web|url=http://eesc.columbia.edu/faculty/prof-james-d-hays|title=James D. Hays - Earth and Environmental Sciences|website=eesc.columbia.edu}} He became a recipient of the Milutin Milankovic Medal in 2010.{{cite web |url= https://www.egu.eu/awards-medals/milutin-milankovic/ |title= EGU - Awards & medals - Milutin Milankovic Medal |author= |publisher= European Geosciences Union |access-date= 18 May 2018 }}