Environmental assessments evaluate the continuously evolving state of science through the lens of relevance to policy and decision making. This lecture will provide an overview of global change assessments, how they have changed, and how they could be modified further to inform risk management and solutions. What research is needed to understand global change in an increasingly complex, interconnected, multi-stressor world? What are the characteristics of a national assessment in which state/local governments, civil society, and the private sector derive actionable information, and the assessment process continues to evolve based on the experiences and needs of these groups? What is needed to stimulate evaluation of whether and how assessments and decision support improve outcomes? The speaker will explore these questions and include personal reflections on the important role played by Dr. James R. Mahoney in advancing science for well-founded decision making. Richard H. Moss is a Senior Scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Joint Global Change Research Institute and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Geographical Sciences at the University of Maryland, College Park. Moss’s research focuses on scenarios, uncertainty characterization, and vulnerability and adaptation to global change. Moss has held several public service positions including Director of the US Global Change Research Program/Climate Change Science Program Office (spanning the Clinton and G.W. Bush Administrations) and technical support director for one of the working groups of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Moss chairs the Federal Advisory Committee for the Sustained US National Climate Assessment and the National Academy of Science's Board on Environmental Change and Society. He is a fellow of the American Society for the Advancement of Science. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in public and international affairs.