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Noah Diffenbaugh

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Noah Diffenbaugh
Diffenbaugh in 2014
Born
Noah S. Diffenbaugh

(1974-07-23) July 23, 1974 (age 50)
Santa Cruz County, California, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materB.S. Stanford University (Earth Systems, 1997), M.S. Stanford University (Earth Systems, 1997), Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz (Earth Sciences, 2003)
Known forclimate change, science communication
AwardsElected Fellow, William Kaula Award and James R. Holton Award from the American Geophysical Union, CAREER award from the National Science Foundation, Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences
Scientific career
FieldsEarth sciences, climatology
InstitutionsStanford University, Purdue University, University of California, Santa Cruz
ThesisGlobal and regional controls on Holocene environments (2003)
Doctoral advisorLisa C. Sloan
Other academic advisorsPaul Koch, Patrick J. Bartlein
Doctoral studentsDaniel Swain
WebsiteStanford Profile page

Noah S. Diffenbaugh (born (1974-07-23)July 23, 1974) is an American climate scientist at Stanford University, where he is the Kara J Foundation Professor of Earth System Science and Kimmelman Family Senior Fellow in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.[1] He is the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of the peer-review journal Environmental Research: Climate (published by IOP Publishing).[2] From 2015-2018, he served as editor-in-chief of the peer-review journal Geophysical Research Letters (published by American Geophysical Union). He is known for his research on the climate system,[3][1] including the effects of global warming on extreme weather and climate events such as the 2011-2017 California drought.[4][5]

Scientific research

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Diffenbaugh received his Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2003. His dissertation was entitled “Global and regional controls on Holocene environments”.[6] His dissertation focused on understanding regional climate change in paleoclimate periods and in modern periods. His dissertation introduced the hypothesis that as vegetation responds to changes in climate, those changes could impact coastal ocean systems by altering the atmospheric pressure patterns that drive coastal winds.[7]

In 2004, Diffenbaugh began a faculty position at Purdue University.[1] While at Purdue, he published first results of high-resolution regional climate simulations for large continental areas, including the United States, Europe and India, which enabled analysis of the role of fine-scale climate processes in extreme events.[8][9][10][11] These high-resolution climate model simulations also enabled analyses of potential impacts of climate change on a suite of systems, including premium winegrapes, corn pests, and snowmelt runoff.[12][13][14]

In 2009, Diffenbaugh moved to a faculty position at Stanford University.[1] He continued his work on the dynamics and impacts of fine-scale climate change,[15] and also began working in the emerging area of “extreme event attribution”.[16] This work culminated in the publication of a new, generalized framework for testing the influence of global warming on individual extreme weather and climate events.[5][17]

The extreme event for which Diffenbaugh is most well known is the 2011-2017 California drought.[4] From 2014-2016, Diffenbaugh's research group published three widely cited papers analyzing the drought and the role of global warming.[18][19][20] These studies analyzed the role of high temperature in amplifying the effects of low precipitation, as well as the role of the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge, a term coined by Diffenbaugh's then-Ph.D. student Daniel Swain to describe the large area of persistently high atmospheric pressure that blocked many storms from reaching California for much of the drought.[21]

At Stanford, Diffenbaugh also began collaborations to quantify the economic impacts of climate change. This work has included quantifying the economic damages associated with different levels of global warming (including the levels identified in the UN Paris Agreement),[22] as well as the role that global warming has played in shaping economic inequality between countries.[23]

Science communication

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Diffenbaugh is active in science communication.[citation needed] He has served on a number of government science panels, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,[24] the United States Climate Change Science Program,[1] and the California Climate-Safe Infrastructure Working Group.[25]

Diffenbaugh has written a number of opinion articles.[citation needed] He was an early adopter of Hangouts On Air, through which he conducted open discussions about climate change with the public.[26][27]

In 2017, Diffenbaugh was the faculty moderator for Stanford University's Three Books Program, in which all incoming first-year undergraduate students are sent three books over the summer, and the authors come to campus for a panel discussion during New Student Orientation.[28]

Personal life

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Diffenbaugh grew up at Mount Madonna Center, an intentional community in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California that was founded in 1978 by Diffenbaugh's parents and other students of Baba Hari Dass. He attended Mount Madonna School from kindergarten through high school, graduating in 1992.[29][30]

Diffenbaugh attended college at Stanford University, where he was a member of the varsity men's volleyball team.[31] After college, he returned to Mount Madonna Center for three years.[29] During that time, he taught high school science and coached volleyball at Mount Madonna School, before entering graduate school at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he describes struggling to find a sense of scientific confidence and direction.[29]

Diffenbaugh and his wife Polly Diffenbaugh live on the Stanford campus, and have three children.[4] He is the grandson of computer pioneer Erwin Tomash,[32] and brother-in-law of novelist Vanessa Diffenbaugh.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e "Noah Diffenbaugh's Profile". profiles.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
  2. ^ "About Environmental Research: Climate". IOPscience - Publishing Support. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
  3. ^ kate.callahan (2012-08-22). "Noah Diffenbaugh". Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
  4. ^ a b c Fagan, Kevin (2015-04-18). "'New normal': Scientists predict less rain from here on out". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
  5. ^ Diffenbaugh, Noah Suresh (2003). "Global and regional controls on Holocene environments". Bibcode:2003PhDT........77D. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. ^ Diffenbaugh, N. S.; Snyder, M. A.; Sloan, L. C. (2004). "Could CO2-induced land-cover feedbacks alter near-shore upwelling regimes?". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 101 (1): 27–32. Bibcode:2004PNAS..101...27D. doi:10.1073/pnas.0305746101. PMC 314132. PMID 14691256.
  7. ^ "Climate model forecasts dramatic changes in U.S." Purdue University News Service. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  8. ^ "Reduced greenhouse gas emissions required to avoid dangerous increases in heat stress, researchers say". Purdue University News Service. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  9. ^ "Purdue study projects weakened monsoon season in South Asia". Purdue University News Service. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  10. ^ "Research forecasts increased chances for stormy weather". Purdue News Service. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  11. ^ Kay, Jane (2006-07-11). "Now's the time to cellar wine". SF Chronicle. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  12. ^ "Purdue study suggests warmer temperatures could lead to a boom in corn pests". Purdue University News Service. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  13. ^ "Study: Future snowmelt in West twice as early as expected; threatens ecosystems and water reserves". Purdue University News Service. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  14. ^ "CAREER: Dynamics and Impacts of Fine-Scale Climate Change". National Science Foundation. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  15. ^ "Explaining Extreme Events of 2012 from a Climate Perspective" (PDF). docs.house.gov. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  16. ^ Diffenbaugh, Noah S.; Singh, Deepti; Mankin, Justin S.; Horton, Daniel E.; Swain, Daniel L.; Touma, Danielle; Charland, Allison; Liu, Yunjie; Haugen, Matz; Tsiang, Michael; Rajaratnam, Bala (2017). "Quantifying the influence of global warming on unprecedented extreme climate events". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 114 (19): 4881–4886. Bibcode:2017PNAS..114.4881D. doi:10.1073/pnas.1618082114. PMC 5441735. PMID 28439005.
  17. ^ "Causes of California drought linked to climate change, Stanford scientists say". Stanford News Service. 2014-09-30. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  18. ^ Diffenbaugh, Noah S.; Swain, Daniel L.; Touma, Danielle (2015). "Anthropogenic warming has increased drought risk in California". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 112 (13): 3931–3936. Bibcode:2015PNAS..112.3931D. doi:10.1073/pnas.1422385112. PMC 4386330. PMID 25733875.
  19. ^ Swain, Daniel L.; Horton, Daniel E.; Singh, Deepti; Diffenbaugh, Noah S. (2016). "Trends in atmospheric patterns conducive to seasonal precipitation and temperature extremes in California". Science Advances. 2 (4): e1501344. Bibcode:2016SciA....2E1344S. doi:10.1126/sciadv.1501344. PMC 4820386. PMID 27051876.
  20. ^ "The extraordinary California dry spell continues: 2013 will probably be the driest year on record". Weather West: The California Weather Blog. 2013-12-13. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  21. ^ Burke, Marshall; Davis, W. Matthew; Diffenbaugh, Noah (2018). "Large potential reduction in economic damages under UN mitigation targets". Nature. 557 (7706): 549–553. Bibcode:2018Natur.557..549B. doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0071-9. PMID 29795251. S2CID 43936274.
  22. ^ Diffenbaugh, Noah; Burke, Marshall (May 14, 2019). "Global warming has increased global economic inequality". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 116 (20): 9808–9813. Bibcode:2019PNAS..116.9808D. doi:10.1073/pnas.1816020116. PMC 6525504. PMID 31010922.
  23. ^ "Working Group II AR5 Author Teams". IPCC. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  24. ^ "Climate-Safe Infrastructure Working Group". California Natural Resources Agency. Retrieved 2018-10-09.
  25. ^ "A Climate Scientist Braves the Wilds of YouTube". New York Times Dot Earth Blog. 2012-11-29. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  26. ^ "Talking Climate, Online in Real Time". KQED Science. 29 June 2012. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  27. ^ Kubota, Taylor (2017-06-22). "Stanford's Three Books program prompts students to think about sustainability and equity". news.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2018-10-09.
  28. ^ a b c "Noah Diffenbaugh". Forecast Pod. 2017-01-11. Retrieved 2018-10-09.
  29. ^ "The Connection 2012-2013" (PDF). Mount Madonna School. Retrieved 2018-10-09.
  30. ^ "Noah Diffenbaugh". Volleyball Worldwide. Retrieved 2018-10-09.
  31. ^ "The Connection 2012-2013" (PDF). Mount Madonna School. Retrieved 2018-10-09.
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