The BU Marine Program Faculty started this lecture series in honor of Fred Lang, an invertebrate physiologist. Fred Lang’s work followed themes of cardiac and neuromuscular physiology, blended uniquely with developmental neurobiology in lobsters. Teaching was always an important activity for Fred, and even after obtaining a Career Development Award, he continued it enthusiastically. He was a key figure in the Boston University Marine Program at Woods Hole and his legacy is carried on through this annual lecture.
The 2025 Lang Lecture
Speaker: Baylor Fox-Kemper
Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
BU Photonics, Room 206
8 St. Mary’s St. | 6:00 PM
Baylor Fox-Kemper is a Professor in the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at Brown University and an elected fellow of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES). His research focuses on the physics of the ocean and its role within the Earth’s climate system. By bridging the gap between complex computational models and autonomous observations, his group develops mathematically rigorous “toy models,” parameterizations, and diagnostics to simplify and explain intricate oceanic processes.
Before joining Brown in 2013, Baylor was an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and a fellow at CIRES. He completed his PhD through the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography and held research positions at both MIT and Princeton/GFDL. His foundational training includes physics degrees from Reed College and Brandeis University.
Prof. Fox-Kemper is a recognized leader in the global climate community, notably serving as: Coordinating Lead Author for the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (Ocean, Cryosphere, and Sea Level Change chapter), and Co-chair of the Earth System Modelling and Observations (ESMO) Core Project for the World Climate Research Program. At Brown, he serves as the STEM faculty director of the Equitable Climate Futures initiative and collaborates across disciplines with the Center for Fluid Mechanics and the Theoretical Physics Center. Fox-Kemper has received an NSF CAREER award and the AGU Ocean Sciences Early Career Award.