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Transitioning Toward Sustainability: Advancing the Scientific Foundation: Proceedings of a Workshop (2016)

Chapter: Appendix C: Biographies of Planning Committee, Speakers, and Staff

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographies of Planning Committee, Speakers, and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transitioning Toward Sustainability: Advancing the Scientific Foundation: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23533.
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Appendix C

Biographies of Planning Committee, Speakers, and Staff

DAVID DZOMBAK (NAE) (Planning Committee Chair) is the Hamerschlag University Professor and Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. The emphasis of his research and teaching is on water resources and water quality engineering, and energy-environment issues. Dr. Dzombak is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a registered professional engineer in Pennsylvania, and a board-certified environmental engineer by the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists. His professional service activity has included the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board (2002–present); the U.S. Department of Defense Strategic Environmental Research and Development Science Advisory Board (2013–present); the EPA National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology, Environmental Technology Subcommittee (2004–2008); the National Research Council (various committees, 2000–present); Editorial Advisory Board for Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (2012–present); associate editor of Environmental Science & Technology (2005–2012); chair of committees for the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists, American Society of Civil Engineers, Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors, and Water Environment Federation; and advisory committees for Allegheny County and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Dr. Dzombak received his Ph.D. in civil engineering (environmental engineering focus) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1986. He also holds an M.S. in civil engineering (1981, environmental engineering focus) and a B.S. in civil Engineering (1980) from Carnegie Mellon, and a B.A. in mathematics from Saint Vincent College (1980).

RYAN ANDERSON is a Christine Mirzayan science and technology policy fellow at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. He also works for the Chicago-based environmental nonprofit the Midwest Pesticide Action Center as a program and communications manager, where he educates and trains urban residents on the practices to reduce synthetic lawn pesticide and fertilizer use. Prior to joining the National Academies, Mr. Anderson completed a master of sustainable solutions at Arizona State University. During his time at Arizona State, he collaborated on carbon mitigation planning with the city of Indianapolis, contributed to research on corporate social responsibility at the Asia Global Institute, and led the online, academic journal The Sustainability Review during its transition to a video format. Mr. Anderson also holds a dual bachelor’s degree in biology and electronic journalism from Butler University.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographies of Planning Committee, Speakers, and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transitioning Toward Sustainability: Advancing the Scientific Foundation: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23533.
×

JOSEPH ARVAI (Planning Committee Member) is the Max McGraw Professor of Sustainable Enterprise and the director of the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan. He is jointly appointed between the School of Natural Resources and Environment, and the Ross School of Business. Prior to joining the University of Michigan, Dr. Arvai was Svare Professor and Chair in Applied Decision Research at the University of Calgary. Dr. Arvai is an internationally recognized expert in the risk and decisions sciences; his research has two main areas of emphasis: First, Dr. Arvai and his research group conduct experiments focused on advancing our understanding of how people process information and make decisions, with a specific emphasis on how people make trade-offs. Second, Dr. Arvai and his team conduct research focused on developing and testing decision-aiding tools and approaches that can be used by people to improve decision quality across a wide range of environmental, social, and economic contexts. Dr. Arvai’s research is applied, and accounts for decision making by a broad spectrum of public and stakeholder groups, as well as by technical experts, business leaders, and policy makers. His work also focuses on choices made by people individually, and when working in groups. Likewise, he conducts his research across a wide range of contexts, ranging from environmental risk management, to consumer choice and policy making. In addition to Dr. Arvai’s academic work, he is a member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Chartered Science Advisory Board, and is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences’ Board on Environmental Change and Society.

ELENA BENNETT is an associate professor in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences at the McGill School of Environment. Dr. Bennett attended Oberlin College as an undergraduate, where she studied biology and environmental studies. She earned her M.Sc. in land resources from the University of Wisconsin in 1999, and her Ph.D. in limnology and marine sciences in 2002. As a postdoc, she helped coordinate the Scenarios Working Group for the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Dr. Bennett started working at McGill in 2005. Her research interests include sustainable use and management of ecosystem services; human impacts on biogeochemical cycles; human perturbation of ecosystem processes; management of trade-offs among ecosystem services, especially agricultural production and water quality; land-use change and water quality; urban ecology; communicating science; and scenarios.

RALPH J. CICERONE (NAS) is the president of the National Academy of Sciences and chair of the National Research Council. His research in atmospheric chemistry, climate change, and energy has involved him in shaping science and environmental policy at the highest levels nationally and internationally. Dr. Cicerone has received a number of honorary degrees and many awards for his scientific work. Among the latter, the Franklin Institute recognized his fundamental contributions to the understanding of greenhouse gases and ozone depletion by selecting Dr. Cicerone as the 1999 laureate for the Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science. In 2001 he led a National Academy of Sciences study of the current state of climate change and its impact on the environment and human health, requested by President Bush. The American Geophysical Union awarded Dr. Cicerone its James B. Macelwane Award in 1979 for outstanding contributions to geophysics by a young scientist and its 2002 Roger Revelle Medal for outstanding research contributions to the understanding of Earth’s atmospheric processes, biogeochemical cycles, and other key elements of the climate system. In 2004 the World Cultural Council honored him with the Albert Einstein World Award in Science. In addition to the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Cicerone is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Korean Academy of Science and Technology. He has served as president of the American Geophysical Union. Dr. Cicerone was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (B.S. in electrical engineering) and the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (M.S., Ph.D. in electrical engineering, with a minor in physics). Immediately prior to his election as Academy president, Dr. Cicerone served as chancellor of the University of California, Irvine, from 1998 to 2005.

WILLIAM C. CLARK (NAS) is the Harvey Brooks Professor of International Science, Public Policy and Human Development at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. His research focuses on sustainability science: understanding the interactions of human and environmental systems with a view toward advancing the goals of sustainable development. He is particularly interested in how institutional arrangements

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographies of Planning Committee, Speakers, and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transitioning Toward Sustainability: Advancing the Scientific Foundation: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23533.
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affect the linkage between knowledge and action in the sustainability arena. At Harvard, he currently codirects the Sustainability Science Program. He is coauthor of Adaptive Environmental Assessment and Management (Wiley, 1978), Redesigning Rural Development (Hopkins, 1982), and The Global Health System: Institutions in a Time of Transition (Harvard, 2010); editor of the Carbon Dioxide Review (Oxford, 1982); coeditor of Sustainable Development of the Biosphere (Cambridge, 1986), The Earth Transformed by Human Action (Cambridge, 1990), Learning to Manage Global Environmental Risks (MIT, 2001), and Global Environmental Assessments (MIT, 2006); and cochaired the U.S. National Research Council’s study Our Common Journey: A Transition toward Sustainability (NAP, 1999). He serves on the editorial board of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Clark is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a recipient of the MacArthur Prize, the Humboldt Prize, the Kennedy School’s Carballo Award for excellence in teaching, and the Harvard College Phi Beta Kappa Prize for Excellence in Teaching.

ROBERT COSTANZA is a professor and chair in public policy at the Australian National University’s Crawford School of Public Policy. Prior to this, he was distinguished university professor of sustainability in the Institute for Sustainable Solutions at Portland State University; Gund Professor of Ecological Economics and founding director of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont; professor at the University of Maryland and at Louisiana State University; and a visiting scientist at the Beijer Institute for Ecological Economics in Stockholm, Sweden, and at the University of Illinois Natural History Survey. Dr. Costanza is also currently a senior fellow at the National Council on Science and the Environment, Washington, D.C.; a senior fellow at the Stockholm Resilience Center, Stockholm, Sweden; an affiliate fellow at the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont; and a deTao Master of Ecological Economics at the deTao Masters Academy in Shanghai, China. Dr. Costanza received B.A. and M.A. degrees in architecture and a Ph.D. in environmental engineering sciences (systems ecology with economics minor), all from the University of Florida. Dr. Costanza’s transdisciplinary research integrates the study of humans and the rest of nature to address research, policy, and management issues at multiple time and space scales, from small watersheds to the global system. Dr. Costanza is cofounder and past president of the International Society for Ecological Economics, and was chief editor of the society’s journal, Ecological Economics, from its inception in 1989 until 2002. He is also founding editor-in-chief of Solutions, a unique hybrid academic/popular journal. Dr. Costanza is the author or coauthor of more than 500 scientific papers and 27 books. His work has been cited in more than 17,000 scientific articles, and he has been named as one of the Institute for Scientific Information’s Highly Cited Researchers since 2004.

JOHN CRITTENDEN (NAE) is director of the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems and Hightower Chair/Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Environmental Technologies at Georgia Institute of Technology. His current research focus is working with other academics and institutions on the challenge of sustainable urban infrastructure systems. The goal of this effort is to connect public policy with the design of urban form in the context of varied urban development scenarios and their potential local, regional, and global environmental impacts. Topics of interest in this work include regional development, energy use, alternative energy technologies, sustainable materials, advanced modeling of urban systems, and sustainable engineering pedagogy. Dr. Crittenden received his Ph.D. and M.S.E. in civil engineering and his B.S.E. in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

THOMAS DIETZ is a professor of sociology and environmental science and policy and assistant vice president for environmental research at Michigan State University (MSU). He is also codirector of the Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessment Center. He holds a Ph.D. in ecology from the University of California, Davis, and a bachelor of general studies from Kent State University. At MSU he was founding director of the Environmental Science and Policy Program and associate dean in the Colleges of Social Science, Agriculture and Natural Resources, and Natural Science. Dr. Dietz is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has been awarded the Sustainability Science Award of the Ecological Society of America; the Distinguished Contribution Award of the American Sociological Association Section on Environment, Technology and Society; the Outstanding Publication Award from the American Sociological Association Section on Environment, Technology and

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographies of Planning Committee, Speakers, and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transitioning Toward Sustainability: Advancing the Scientific Foundation: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23533.
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Society; and the Gerald R. Young Book Award from the Society for Human Ecology. He has served as chair of the U.S. National Research Council Committee on Human Dimensions of Global Change and the Panel on Public Participation in Environmental Assessment and Decision Making, and as vice chair of the Panel on Advancing the Science of Climate Change of the America’s Climate Choices study. Dr. Dietz has also served as secretary of Section K (Social, Economic, and Political Sciences) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is the former president of the Society for Human Ecology. He has coauthored or coedited 13 books and more than 130 papers and book chapters.

KRISTIE L. EBI (Planning Committee Member) is a professor in the Department of Global Health and in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington; a guest professor at Umea University, Sweden; and consulting professor at Stanford University and George Washington University. She conducts research on the impacts of and adaptation to climate change, including on extreme events, thermal stress, foodborne safety and security, waterborne diseases, and vectorborne diseases. Her work focuses on understanding sources of vulnerability and designing adaptation policies and measures to reduce the risks of climate change in a multistressor environment. She has worked on assessing vulnerability and implementing adaptation measures in Central America, Europe, Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and the United States. She is cochair with Tom Kram (PBL, the Netherlands) of the International Committee on New Integrated Climate Change Assessment Scenarios (ICONICS), facilitating development of new climate change scenarios. She was executive director of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group II Technical Support Unit from 2009 to 2012. She was a coordinating lead author or lead author for the human health assessment for two U.S. national assessments, the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development. Dr. Ebi’s scientific training includes an M.S. in toxicology and a Ph.D. and M.P.H. in epidemiology, and postgraduate research at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She has edited 4 books on aspects of climate change and has published more than 150 papers.

THOMAS GRAEDEL (NAE) (Planning Committee Member) is the Clifton R. Musser Professor of Industrial Ecology, professor of chemical engineering, and director of the Center for Industrial Ecology at Yale University. Previously, he was a distinguished member of the technical staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories. He cochaired the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability from 2008 to 2014. He is the author or coauthor of 13 books and more than 350 technical papers in various scientific journals. Dr. Graedel received his B.S. (chemical engineering) from Washington State University in 1960, his M.A. (physics) from Kent State University in 1964, and his M.S. and Ph.D. (astronomy) from the University of Michigan in 1967 and 1969, respectively.

MARK HOWDEN is a chief research scientist with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Agriculture Flagship and an honorary professor at Melbourne University, School of Land and Food. He is also the interim director of the Climate Change Institute at the Australian National University. Dr. Howden’s work has focused on how climate impacts on, and innovative adaptation options for, systems we value: agriculture and food security, the natural resource base, ecosystems and biodiversity, energy, water, and urban systems. He has also developed the national (NGGI) and international (IPCC/OECD) greenhouse gas inventories for the agricultural sector and assessed sustainable methods of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. Dr. Howden has worked on climate variability, climate change, innovation, and adoption issues for more than 27 years in partnership with farmers, farmer groups, catchment groups, industry bodies, agribusiness, urban utilities and various policy agencies via both research and science-policy roles. Dr. Howden has more than 390 publications of different types. He has been a major contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Assessment reports and various IPCC special reports, sharing the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with other IPCC participants and Al Gore. Recently, Dr. Howden sat on the U.S. Federal Advisory Committee for the Third National Climate Assessment, and he participates in several other international science and policy advisory bodies.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographies of Planning Committee, Speakers, and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transitioning Toward Sustainability: Advancing the Scientific Foundation: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23533.
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ANTHONY KU is a senior engineer in the Manufacturing and Materials Technologies organization at GE Global Research, with interests in advanced materials and material systems development. Since joining GE, Dr. Ku has worked on a range of projects in support of GE’s Water, Energy, Aviation, and Healthcare businesses. He has led several projects centered on the themes of energy, water, and materials sustainability, with experience in advancing technology from TRL 1 through 6. He is currently supporting the introduction of advanced cores for blade casting and ceramic matrix composites into GE’s new jet engines. Dr. Ku is also interested in the interface between materials development and system design, and recently joined with several colleagues to start a new scientific journal, Sustainable Materials and Technology, to promote technical dialogue in this area. Dr. Ku served as chair of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s committees on Energy Sustainability: A Meeting Series. He received his Ph.D. degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University and his M.S. degree in chemical engineering practice from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2004 and 1997, respectively.

MARGARET LEINEN is the director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, and also serves as the University of California, San Diego’s vice chancellor for marine sciences and dean of the School of Marine Sciences. Prior to joining Scripps, she served as vice provost for marine and environmental initiatives, and executive director at Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute from 2011 to 2013. She is the founder and served as president of the Climate Response Fund from 2009 to 2011 and was the Chief Science Officer of Climos, Inc., from 2007 to 2008. From 2000 to 2007, she was the assistant director for geosciences and coordinator of environmental research and education at the National Science Foundation. Dr. Leinen was vice provost for marine and environmental programs and dean of the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island from 1991 to 2000. She is president-elect of the American Geophysical Union. Dr. Leinen serves on numerous boards, including the Oceanography Society, the National Council for Science and the Environment, International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Science Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Research Board of the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative. She previously served on the board for the National Ecological Observatory Network and the Global Change Research Program of the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Leinen received her doctorate in oceanography from the University of Rhode Island, her master’s degree in geological oceanography from Oregon State University, and her bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of Illinois.

STEVEN LOHRENZ assumed the position of dean and professor of the School for Marine Science and Technology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in July 2011. Prior to that, he served as chair of the University of Southern Mississippi Department of Marine Science, located at the NASA John C. Stennis Space Center. Dr. Lohrenz received a Ph.D. in biological oceanography in 1985 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology–Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Northeast Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System and is a member of the NASA Geostationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events Satellite Mission Science Working Group and the NASA Ocean Carbon Monitoring System Scoping Team. He served on the University of Southern Mississippi Oil Spill Response Team and a statewide Mississippi oil spill response committee during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. His research interests include phytoplankton ecology and physiology, cycling of nutrients and carbon, and the application of optics and remote sensing for characterizing water quality and biogeochemical processes in coastal waters. Dr. Lohrenz is currently involved in research on detection and characterization of harmful algal blooms, distribution and fate of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and land-ocean interactions in the Mississippi River basin and northern Gulf of Mexico.

WOLFGANG LUTZ is founding director of the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital (a new collaboration between the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis [IIASA], the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and the Vienna University of Economics and Business [WU]). He joined IIASA in October 1985, where he is program director of the World Population Program. Since 2002 he is also director of the Vienna Institute of Demography of the Austrian Academy of Science, and since 2008, full professor of applied statistics (part time) at the WU. He is also professorial research fellow at the Oxford Martin School for 21st Century Studies. Dr. Lutz studied philosophy, theology, mathematics, and statistics at the Universities of Munich,

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographies of Planning Committee, Speakers, and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transitioning Toward Sustainability: Advancing the Scientific Foundation: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23533.
×

Vienna, and Helsinki and holds a Ph.D. in demography from the University of Pennsylvania (1983) and a second doctorate (habilitation) in statistics from the University of Vienna. He has worked on family demography, fertility analysis, population projection, and the interaction between population and environment. He has been conducting a series of in-depth studies on population-development-environment interactions in Mexico, several African countries, and Asia. He is the author of the series of world population projections produced at IIASA and has developed approaches for projecting education and human capital. He is also principal investigator of the Asian MetaCentre for Population and Sustainable Development Analysis. Dr. Lutz is author and editor of 28 books and more than 200 refereed articles, including 7 in Science and Nature. In 2008 he received an ERC Advanced Grant, in 2009 the Mattei Dogan Award of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population and in 2010 the Wittgenstein Prize, the highest Austrian science award. He is elected full member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and of the German National Academy Leopoldina as well as a member of the Committee on Population of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

ALISON MACALADY (Staff) is an associate program officer for the Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Dr. Macalady grew up in Colorado and holds a B.A. in geology, a master’s degree in forestry, and a Ph.D. in geography from the University of Arizona. Her dissertation research focused on understanding how climate variability and change influence forest ecosystems, and in particular on how drought coupled with high temperatures can increase tree mortality rates, insect outbreaks, and wildfires. Prior to pursuing her Ph.D., Dr. Macalady spent several years working as a reporter and radio producer, covering environmental issues in the American West. She also worked for a variety of nonprofit organizations on issues related to forest conservation and management.

ROBERTA MARINELLI (Planning Committee Member) is the executive director of the University of Southern California (USC), Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies. She plays a leadership role in planning and implementing an expansion of academic and research programs in environmental studies at USC’s University Park Campus and at the Philip K. Wrigley Marine Science Center on Santa Catalina Island. She also oversees the George and Mary Lou Boone Center for Science and Environmental Leadership, a nexus where scientists and policy makers can meet to resolve environmental disputes and address marine science concerns. Her research interests include the ecology and geochemistry of seafloor communities, and coupled human-natural interactions in marine environments. Dr. Marinelli was a program officer the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Sciences section, where she contributed to building collaborative programs across the foundation, including the International Polar Year, Climate Research Investments, and SEES (Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability). She was previously on the faculty of the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Science, and the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, where she received a National Science Foundation Early Career Award. She is a member of the American Geophysical Union and the American Society for Limnology and Oceanography. Dr. Marinelli received her Ph.D. in marine science from the University of South Carolina.

PAMELA MATSON (NAS) is the Chester Naramore Dean of the School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences, Richard and Rhoda Goldman Professor in Environmental Studies, and senior fellow at the Woods Institute for Environment at Stanford University. A MacArthur fellow and elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Matson is an internationally recognized interdisciplinary Earth scientist, academic leader, and organizational strategist. Her research addresses a range of environment and sustainability issues, including sustainability of agricultural systems; vulnerability of particular people and places to climate change; and environmental consequences of tropical land-use change and global change in the nitrogen and carbon cycles. With multidisciplinary teams of researchers, managers, and decision makers, she has worked to develop agricultural approaches that reduce environmental impacts while maintaining livelihoods and human well-being. Dr. Matson is the author of numerous scientific publications and books, including the recently published Seeds of Sustainability, and the National Research Council volumes Our Common Journey: A Transition Toward Sustainability and America’s Climate Choices. She is the founding cochair of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability, and serves on the boards

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographies of Planning Committee, Speakers, and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transitioning Toward Sustainability: Advancing the Scientific Foundation: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23533.
×

of the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, World Wildlife Fund, and Climate Works Foundation. She is a past president of the Ecological Society of America, past lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and was a member of the science leadership committee for the International Geosphere-Atmosphere Programme. Dr. Matson received her B.S. in biology from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire; her M.S. in environmental science from Indiana University; and her Ph.D. in forest ecology from Oregon State University.

JERRY MILLER (Staff) was appointed director of the Science and Technology for Sustainability Program at the National Academies in February 2015. A senior executive with expertise in science and resource management policy, Dr. Miller is the Academies’ senior scientist driving policy and program direction on sustainability-related issues. Previously, Dr. Miller served as president of Science for Decisions, a consulting practice he founded to ensure that solid science is available to inform policy and management decisions that impact natural resources and the livelihoods that depend upon them. From 2009 until 2013, Dr. Miller served as assistant director for ocean sciences at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). During his time at OSTP, Dr. Miller was instrumental in the creation of the nation’s first National Ocean Policy and the development of its foundational science priorities. He was founding codirector of the National Ocean Council Office and later served as its deputy director for science and technology. Before taking on his role at OSTP, Dr. Miller was technical director and director of research at the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education (now the Consortium for Ocean Leadership), where he had management and oversight responsibilities for the program offices of the U.S. National Oceanographic Partnership Program, the national and international Census of Marine Life programs, and other community-wide activities. As associate director for ocean, atmosphere, and space sciences at the Office of Naval Research’s global office in London, he built international programs in ocean and atmosphere modeling as well as remote sensing. Dr. Miller has published widely in peer-reviewed literature and has made significant contributions to several major federal policy documents. His work has been recognized with awards both in the United States and abroad, including with a Distinguished Career Achievement Award from the University of Rhode Island. Dr. Miller received his B.S. in marine science from the University of South Carolina, his M.S. in oceanography from the University of Rhode Island, and his Ph.D. in meteorology and physical oceanography from the University of Miami.

GERALD NELSON is professor emeritus, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Nelson was the principal author of the report Advancing Global Food Security in the Face of a Changing Climate, released by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in May 2014. He most recently served as a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C., where he coordinated its climate change research, led the policy analysis activities of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security, and was the principal investigator on major projects on food security and climate change issues funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the German and British aid agencies. His research includes global modeling of the interactions among agriculture, land use, and climate change; consequences of macroeconomic, sector, and trade policies and climate change on land use and the environment using remotely sensed geographic and socioeconomic data; and the assessment of the effects of genetically modified crops on the environment. Dr. Nelson was the coordinating lead author of the “Drivers of Ecosystem Change” chapter of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Scenarios work. Previously, he was professor in the Department of Agricultural Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, served as visiting scholar at the Economic Research Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and was specialist and visiting assistant professor at the University of the Philippines.

PRABHU PINGALI (NAS) (Planning Committee Member) is a professor in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and the founding director of the Tata-Cornell Agriculture and Nutrition Initiative at Cornell University. Prior to joining Cornell in June 2013, he was the deputy director of the Agriculture Development Division of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, based in Seattle, Washington, from 2008 to May 2013. Dr. Pingali was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences as a foreign fellow in May 2007, a fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association (AAEA) in 2006, and a fellow of the International Association

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographies of Planning Committee, Speakers, and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transitioning Toward Sustainability: Advancing the Scientific Foundation: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23533.
×

of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) in 2009. He served as the president of IAAE from 2003 to 2006, and was named the 2010 Outstanding Alumnus of North Carolina State University. He has received several international awards for his work, including the Research Discovery Award from the AAEA. Dr. Pingali has more than 3 decades of experience working with some of the leading international agricultural development organizations as a research economist, development practitioner, and senior manager. He was the director of the Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations from 2002 to 2007, and the director of the Economics Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Mexico, from 1996 to 2002. Prior to joining CIMMYT, he worked at the International Rice Research Institute at Los Banos, Philippines, from 1987 to 1996 as an agricultural economist, and at the World Bank’s Agriculture and Rural Development Department from 1982 to 1987 as an economist. Dr. Pingali has written 10 books and more than 100 referred journal articles and book chapters on food policy, technological change, productivity growth, environmental externalities, and resource management in the developing world.

STEPHEN POLASKY (NAS) is the Fesler-Lampert Professor of Ecological/Environmental Economics at the University of Minnesota. He received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan in 1986. He previously held faculty positions in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at Oregon State University (1993–1999) and the Department of Economics at Boston College (1986–1993). Dr. Polasky was the senior staff economist for environment and resources for the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (1998–1999). He was elected into the National Academy of Sciences in 2010. He was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009 and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2007. His research focuses on issues at the intersection of ecology and economics and includes the impacts of land use and land management on the provision and value of ecosystem services and natural capital, biodiversity conservation, sustainability, environmental regulation, renewable energy, and common property resources. He has served as coeditor and associate editor for the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, as associate editor for the International Journal of Business and Economics, and is currently serving as an associate editor for Conservation Letters, Ecology and Society, and Ecology Letters, and on the editorial board of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

YASMIN ROMITTI (Staff) is a research assistant for the Science and Technology for Sustainability Program at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Ms. Romitti has previous experience with the United Nations Environment Programme, working on workshops and roundtables pertaining to climate change, biodiversity conservation, various environmental treaties and conventions, and the Sustainable Development Goals. Ms. Romitti earned a B.A. in international relations with a minor in biology at Boston University and a master of advanced international studies at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna in Austria.

KAREN SETO is professor of geography and urbanization and associate dean of research at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Prior to joining Yale University, she was on the faculty at Stanford University for 8 years. Dr. Seto’s research is on the human transformation of land and the links between urbanization, global change, and sustainability. She is an expert in urbanization dynamics, forecasting urban growth, and examining the environmental consequences of urban expansion. She has pioneered methods using satellite remote sensing to reconstruct historical patterns of urbanization and to develop projections of future urban expansion. She specializes in China and India, where she has conducted urbanization research for more than 15 years. Dr. Seto serves on a number of international and national scientific advisory committees, including as coordinating lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report, coordinating lead author for the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity Cities and Biodiversity Outlook, and cochair of the International Human Dimension Programme on Global Environmental Change Urbanization and Global Environmental Change Project. She also currently serves on the National Research Council (NRC) Committee to Advise the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), the NRC Geographical Sciences Committee, and the U.S. Carbon Cycle Scientific Steering Group. She is the executive producer of 10,000 Shovels: Rapid Urban Growth in China, a documentary film that integrates satellite imagery, historical photographs, and contemporary film footage to examine the urban

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographies of Planning Committee, Speakers, and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transitioning Toward Sustainability: Advancing the Scientific Foundation: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23533.
×

changes occurring in China. Dr. Seto is a recipient of a NASA New Investigator Program (Career) Award, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, and a National Geographic research grant. She was named an Aldo Leopold Leadership fellow in 2009. Dr. Seto received her B. A. in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara (1991) and her M.A. in international relations and resource and environmental management (1995) and Ph.D. in geography (2000) from Boston University.

STEVEN SKERLOS is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the University of Michigan and is a tenured faculty member in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Civil and Environmental Engineering. He also serves as a University of Michigan distinguished faculty fellow in sustainability. Dr. Skerlos is director of the University of Michigan’s Program in Sustainable Engineering and codirector of the Engineering Sustainable Systems Program. He is chairman of the board and founder of Fusion Coolant Systems. In 2015 he colaunched the Insitu Center for Socially Engaged Design. He has also served as director of Sustainability Education Programs for the College of Engineering since 2012. Dr. Skerlos has gained national recognition and press for his research and teaching in the fields of technology policy and sustainable design. He has cofounded two successful start-up companies (Accuri Cytometers and Fusion Coolant Systems), cofounded BLUElab, served as director of the Graduate Program in Mechanical Engineering (2009–2012), and served as associate and guest editor for four different academic journals. From 2005 to 2012, he served as principal investigator for a $2 million National Science Foundation Award to study Greenhouse Gas Policies in the Automotive Sector. Dr. Skerlos received his Ph.D. in industrial engineering and his B.S. in electrical engineering from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 2000 and 1994, respectively.

WILLIAM SOLECKI is a professor in the Department of Geography at Hunter College-City University of New York (CUNY). Dr. Solecki’s research focuses on urban environmental change, resilience, and adaptation transitions. From 2006 to 2014, he served as the director of the CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities at Hunter College. He also served as interim director of the Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay. He has colead several climate impact studies in the greater New York and New Jersey region, including the New York City on Panel on Climate Change. He recently was a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Working Group II, Urban Areas chapter (Chapter 8) and a coordinating lead author of the U.S. National Climate Assessment, Urbanization, Infrastructure, and Vulnerability chapter (Chapter 11). He is a cofounder of the Urban Climate Change Research Network, coeditor of Current Opinion on Environmental Sustainability, and founding editor of the Journal of Extreme Events. He holds a B.A. in geography from Columbia University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Rutgers University.

AMANDA STAUDT directs the Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (BASC) and the Polar Research Board at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Dr. Staudt leads strategic planning, guides project development, and provides institutional oversight for both boards. From 2007 to 2013, she was a senior climate scientist at the National Wildlife Federation. In this role, she focused on communicating climate science and impacts with key decision makers and the general public, developing the intellectual and practical foundation for climate-informed conservation, and advancing climate change science education. She served on the steering committee for Impacts of Climate Change on Biodiversity, Ecosystems, and Ecosystem Services: Technical Input to the 2013 National Climate Assessment, and was an editor of Climate-Smart Conservation: Putting Adaptation Principles into Practice, a 2014 guidance produced by an expert workgroup including representatives from government, nonprofits, and academia. Prior to her time at the National Wildlife Federation, Dr. Staudt was a senior program officer for BASC, where she directed the Climate Research Committee and a number of high-profile studies, including the fast-track review of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program Strategic Plan, and studies on weather research for surface transportation and radiative forcing effects on climate. She also spearheaded the development of the Academies’ first booklet on climate change targeted to public audiences. Dr. Staudt received her B.A. cum laude in environmental science and engineering from Harvard College and her Ph.D. in atmospheric sciences from Harvard University.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographies of Planning Committee, Speakers, and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transitioning Toward Sustainability: Advancing the Scientific Foundation: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23533.
×

SUSAN TRUMBORE (NAS) (Planning Committee Member) has been a director of the Department Biogeochemical Processes at Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry since 2009. She is also professor of earth system science at the University of California, Irvine, and honorary professor in the faculty of chemistry and geology at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena. Her main research contribution is the application of radiocarbon to study the dynamics of carbon cycling in plants and soils. In 2014 she became the editor-in-chief of Global Biogeochemical Cycles. She is a member of the speaker team for the Collaborative Research Centre AquaDiva and a member of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research. Dr. Trumbore received her B.S. in geology from the University of Delaware and her M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in geochemistry from Columbia University.

JOHN WEYANT is professor of management science and engineering, director of the Energy Modeling Forum, and deputy director of the Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency at Stanford University. He is also a senior fellow of the Precourt Institute for Energy and the Freeman-Spolgi Institute for International Studies at Stanford. Dr. Weyant earned a B.S./M.S. in aeronautical engineering and astronautics, M.S. degrees in engineering management and in operations research and statistics, all from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a Ph.D. in management science with minors in economics, operations research, and organization theory from the University of California, Berkeley. He was also a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. His research focuses on analysis of global climate change policy options, energy-efficiency analysis, energy-technology assessment, and models for strategic planning. He has been a convening lead author or lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for chapters on integrated assessment, greenhouse gas mitigation, integrated climate impacts, and sustainable development, and most recently served as a review editor for the climate change mitigation working group of the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report. He is a member of the California Air Resources Board Economic and Technology Advancement Advisory Committee (ETAAC), which is charged with making recommendations for technology policies to help implement Assembly Bill 32, the state Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. Dr. Weyant was awarded the U.S. Association for Energy Economics’ 2008 Adelmann-Frankel award for unique and innovative contributions to the field of energy economics. Dr. Weyant was honored in 2007 as a major contributor to the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the IPCC and in 2008 for contributions to ETAAC on AB 32.

JULIE ZIMMERMAN is the Donna L. Dubinsky Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering jointly appointed to the Chemical and Environmental Engineering Department of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She is the associate director for research at the Yale Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering. Dr. Zimmerman’s research interests broadly focus on green chemistry and engineering with specific emphasis on green downstream processing and life-cycle assessment of algal biomass for fuels and value-added chemicals as well as novel bio-based sorbents for purification of drinking water and remediation of industrial wastewater. Other ongoing focus areas include the design of safer chemicals from first principles and the implications of nanomaterials on human health and the environment. Further, to enhance the likelihood of successful implementation of these next-generation designs, Dr. Zimmerman studies the effectiveness and impediments of current and potential policies developed to advance sustainability. Together, these efforts represent a systematic and holistic approach to addressing the challenges of sustainability to enhance water and resource quality and quantity, to improve environmental protection, and to provide for a higher quality of life. Dr. Zimmerman previously served as an engineer and program coordinator in the Office of Research and Development at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where she managed sustainability research grants and created EPA’s P3 (People, Prosperity, and the Planet) Award program. She received a joint Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in environmental engineering and natural resource policy.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographies of Planning Committee, Speakers, and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transitioning Toward Sustainability: Advancing the Scientific Foundation: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23533.
×

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographies of Planning Committee, Speakers, and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transitioning Toward Sustainability: Advancing the Scientific Foundation: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23533.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographies of Planning Committee, Speakers, and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transitioning Toward Sustainability: Advancing the Scientific Foundation: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23533.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographies of Planning Committee, Speakers, and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transitioning Toward Sustainability: Advancing the Scientific Foundation: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23533.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographies of Planning Committee, Speakers, and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transitioning Toward Sustainability: Advancing the Scientific Foundation: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23533.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographies of Planning Committee, Speakers, and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transitioning Toward Sustainability: Advancing the Scientific Foundation: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23533.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographies of Planning Committee, Speakers, and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transitioning Toward Sustainability: Advancing the Scientific Foundation: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23533.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographies of Planning Committee, Speakers, and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transitioning Toward Sustainability: Advancing the Scientific Foundation: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23533.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographies of Planning Committee, Speakers, and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transitioning Toward Sustainability: Advancing the Scientific Foundation: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23533.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographies of Planning Committee, Speakers, and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transitioning Toward Sustainability: Advancing the Scientific Foundation: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23533.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographies of Planning Committee, Speakers, and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transitioning Toward Sustainability: Advancing the Scientific Foundation: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23533.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographies of Planning Committee, Speakers, and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transitioning Toward Sustainability: Advancing the Scientific Foundation: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23533.
×
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In 1999 the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a landmark report, Our Common Journey: A Transition toward Sustainability, which attempted to “reinvigorate the essential strategic connections between scientific research, technological development, and societies’ efforts to achieve environmentally sustainable improvements in human well-being.”1 The report emphasized the need for place-based and systems approaches to sustainability, proposed a research strategy for using scientific and technical knowledge to better inform the field, and highlighted a number of priorities for actions that could contribute to a sustainable future.

The past 15 years have brought significant advances in observational and predictive capabilities for a range of natural and social systems, as well as development of other tools and approaches useful for sustainability planning. In addition, other frameworks for environmental decision making, such as those that focus on climate adaptation or resilience, have become increasingly prominent. A careful consideration of how these other approaches might intersect with sustainability is warranted, particularly in that they may affect similar resources or rely on similar underlying scientific data and models.

To further the discussion on these outstanding issues, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop on January 14–15, 2016. Participants discussed progress in sustainability science during the last 15 years, potential opportunities for advancing the research and use of scientific knowledge to support a transition toward sustainability, and challenges specifically related to establishing indicators and observations to support sustainability research and practice. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

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