Assessing the Problem

Understanding the science of climate change and its impacts on populations is fundamental to any policy and technology solutions. In the sciences, SAS faculty are involved in climate modeling, glaciology, the study of extreme environments, and documentation of the health of coral reefs. Sociologists and political scientists are looking at population displacement and migration, impacts on fertility and births, and children’s well-being.

Highlights

EES

The Department of Earth and Environmental Science brings critical scientific expertise to the task of documenting global environmental changes. Faculty are expanding understanding of climate impacts through research on glaciers, atmospheric chemistry, soil and the carbon cycle, and the role of oceans in Earth’s climate systems, along with many other aspects of the Earth’s composition and dynamic processes.

Various seabirds perching on a rusted, decaying ship.

Envirolab

EnviroLab is a workspace dedicated to supporting cutting-edge graduate research on environment-society relations. Drawing together research in anthropology, history, science and technology studies, urban geography and the physical sciences, Envirolab explores how human-animal-environment relations might be key sites from which to reimagine and rearticulate more just and nourishing modes of inhabiting our climate changed planet.

Population Studies Center

PSC has elevated Population and the Environment to a new primary research area, with projects currently underway on Air Pollution and Child Health, and Built Environment and Well-being. These projects are distinguished by a demographic or population perspective on the environment as well as their multidisciplinary character.

Spotlight: People

Frank Diebold

Paul F. Miller, Jr., and E. Warren Shafer Miller Professor of Social Sciences

Joe Francisco

President’s Distinguished Professor of Earth and Environmental Science

Guy Grossman

David M. Knott Professor of Global Politics and International Relations; Co-Director of the Penn Development Research Initiative (PDRI-DevLab)

Emily Hannum

Professor of Sociology and Education; Associate Dean, School of Arts & Sciences

Jon Hawkings

Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Science

John MacDonald

Professor of Criminology and Sociology, and Director of the Master of Science in Criminology

Michael E. Mann

Presidential Distinguished Professor
Director of Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media

Irina Marinov

Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Science; Long Term Guest Investigator, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Hugo Ulloa

Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Science

Erik Wibbels

Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Political Science