When the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded on Dec. 10 to the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and former Vice President Al Gore, a UC Davis transportation expert will take pride in the recognition.

Daniel Sperling, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis (ITS-Davis), contributed to the IPCC's most recent report, "Climate Change 2007: The Fourth IPCC Assessment Report," as a member of Working Group III and a lead author of Chapter 5, "Transport and Its Infrastructure."

When the Peace Prize award winners were announced in October, Sperling and his colleagues received a letter from the Working Group III co-chairs that said: "This makes all of you a Nobel laureate and we, as co-chairs, want to congratulate you wholeheartedly with this exceptional recognition."

The United Nations established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to provide the world with a clear, balanced view of the present state of understanding of climate change. Today, the panel is considered the world's leading body for the assessment of climate change.

"The Peace Prize is a great honor for all of us who have worked for years to study the link between transportation and climate change," said Sperling. "I never dreamed I would ever be able to claim a tiny piece of the Nobel."

Sperling is an international authority on research and development in advanced transportation fuels and fuel technology. He is co-author, with a UC Berkeley researcher, of California's new Low Carbon Fuel Standard, and is a member of the California Air Resources Board.