Richard Blane Alley (born 18 August 1957)[6] is an American geologist and Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences at Pennsylvania State University.

[23] [24][25][26] Alley gave the Bjerknes lecture to the 2009 American Geophysical Union meeting titled "The biggest control knob- Carbon Dioxide in Earth's climate history".

"[3] Alley is one of several Penn State earth scientists who are contributors to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.

In 2005 he was also the first recipient of the Louis Agassiz Medal for his "outstanding and sustained contribution to glaciology and for his effective communication of important scientific issues in the public policy arena".

[33] He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in the same year, his nomination reads: Richard Alley has made outstanding contributions to the study of ice, its interactions with the landscape and its link to climate.

His work synthesised the evidence that abrupt climate changes occurred in the past, and drove hypotheses about their cause and the role of ice on ocean circulation.

On Sunday, April 10, 2011, PBS debuted a special program on climate change, entitled EARTH: The Operators’ Manual,[36] hosted by Alley.

[37] The program's aim was to present an objective, accessible assessment of the Earth's problems and possible solutions, with the stated intention of leaving viewers informed, energized and optimistic.