ECo Talks: Addressing Climate Change and Sustainability through Data and Modeling with Noelle Eckley Selin
Dr. Noelle Eckley Selin, Professor in the Institute for Data, Systems and Society and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and Director of MIT’s Technology and Policy Program, will present her talk, “Addressing Climate Change and Sustainability through Data and Modeling,” as part of the ECo Talks series produced by the Earth Commons.
About the Speaker: Noelle Eckley Selin is Professor in the Institute for Data, Systems and Society (IDSS) and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. She currently serves as Interim Director of IDSS; from 2018-2023, she was Director of MIT’s Technology and Policy Program. Her research uses modeling and analysis to inform sustainability decision-making, focusing on issues involving air pollution, climate change and hazardous substances such as mercury. She received her PhD and M.A. (Earth and Planetary Sciences) and B.A. (Environmental Science and Public Policy) from Harvard University. Her work has focused on atmospheric chemistry, air pollution, as well as interactions between science and policy in international environmental negotiations. She is the recipient of a U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER award (2011), a Leopold Leadership fellow (2013-2014), Kavli fellow (2015), a member of the Global Young Academy (2014-2018), an American Association for the Advancement of Science Leshner Leadership Institute Fellow (2016-2017), and a Hans Fischer Senior Fellow at the Technical University of Munich Institute for Advanced Study (2018-2021).
About the Talk: Ensuring human well-being for present and future generations is the primary challenge of sustainable development, and improved scientific understanding of the Earth system is necessary to support decision-making to mitigate climate change and inform sustainability transitions. People and their activities interact with the environment in a complex system which is characterized by feedbacks, nonlinearities, adaptations, and threshold behavior, and capturing these dynamics in ways that can inform interventions has been a longstanding challenge. I will present recent work that advances data analysis and modeling techniques to better capture how relevant policies affect human well-being in ways that inform decision-making. One example of this involves efforts to address exposure to air pollution in the context of climate mitigation, where interrelated policy objectives require controlling similar and interacting sources. Climate-related policies and future energy choices affect air pollution exposure and associated inequities in the U.S., and various strategies towards net-zero carbon emissions can have different impacts on human well-being overall. I will present new frameworks, models, and data analyses that can help researchers better understand these nature-society interactions, in ways relevant for policy and decision-making.
Event Details: Light refreshments will be provided. Free and open to all. No RSVP required. In person and online event Zoom ID 93082466514.
About the Series: Every Friday beginning on January 26th, ECo Talks features scholars, leaders and innovators sparking conversation, sharing knowledge, and spurring change. ECo Talks are presented by the Earth Commons Fridays 11:30 am – 12:30 pm in Arrupe Hall Conference Room. Learn more about the series >>
