Louise Bedsworth is the Director of the Land Use Program at the Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment at Berkeley Law School where she also serves as a Senior Advisor to the California-China Climate Institute. Before joining CLEE, Louise spent nearly a decade working for the State of California, most recently as the Executive Director of the Strategic Growth Council. Prior to joining SGC, Louise was the Deputy Director of the Office of Planning and Research in Governor Jerry Brown’s office. Before joining OPR, Louise was a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, where her work focused on climate change adaptation, local government action on climate change, and transportation. She has also held positions at the Union of Concerned Scientists, Redefining Progress, and the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis. Louise received a B.S. in Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.S. in Environmental Engineering and Ph.D. in Energy and Resources, both from the University of California at Berkeley.
Michael B. Gerrard, Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia Law School, teaches courses on environmental law, climate change law, and energy regulation, founded and directs the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and chaired the Earth Institute. Before joining the Columbia faculty in 2009, he practiced environmental law in New York for 30 years, most recently as partner in charge of the New York office of Arnold & Porter. Gerrard was the 2004-2005 chair of the American Bar Association’s 10,000-member section of environment, energy, and resources. He also chaired the New York City Bar Association’s executive committee and the New York State Bar Association’s environmental law section. He has served on the executive committees of the boards of the Environmental Law Institute and the American College of Environmental Lawyers. Among the books he has edited is Climate Engineering and the Law: Regulation and Liability for Solar Radiation Management and Carbon Dioxide Removal (with Tracy Hester 2018).
Sikina Jinnah is a Professor of Environmental Studies at University of California at Santa Cruz, and a 2017 Andrew Carnegie Fellow. She holds a PhD from UC Berkeley in Environmental Science, Policy and Management. Her research focuses on global environmental governance, in particular in the areas of climate change, climate engineering, and the nexus between international trade and environmental politics. Her first book (Post-treaty Politics. MIT Press 2014) received the 2016 Harold and Margaret Sprout Award for best book in international environmental affairs from the International Studies Association and her second monograph (Greening through Trade, MIT Press 2020) was a finalist for the 2021 Canadian Political Science Association Prize in International Relations. She edits the journal Environmental Politics, is on the editorial board for the journal Global Environmental Politics, and is a Senior Research Fellow with the Earth System Governance project.
Michael Kleeman is a Senior Fellow at the University of California San Diego affiliated with the School of Global Policy and Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. His research focuses on critical infrastructure, public health, and community resilience. He is a senior advisor at BSR (formerly Business for Social Responsibility) and the Boston Consulting Group and serves on the Board Institute for the Future. He serves on the Board of the Institute for the Future, and the Bay Area Red Cross (he is also an executive partner to NHQ staff). Kleeman holds a B.S. from Syracuse University and an M.A. from Claremont Graduate School and has been affiliated as a researcher with UC Berkeley, UCS and IMD (Switzerland).
Robert Lempert is a principal researcher at the RAND Corporation and Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for Longer Range Global Policy and the Future Human Condition. His research focuses on risk management and decision-making under conditions of deep uncertainty. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a convening lead author for Working Group II of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report. Dr. Lempert is also a chair of the peer review panel for California’s Fourth Climate Assessment, a member of California’s Climate-Safe Infrastructure Working Group, and has been a member of study panels for the U.S. National Academies. He earned his Ph.D. in applied physics from Harvard University.
Katharine Mach is a Professor at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science and the UM Abess Center, focused on environmental science and policy. Mach’s research assesses climate change risks and response options to address increased flooding, extreme heat, wildfire, and other hazards. Mach was the 2020 recipient of the Piers Sellers Prize for world leading contribution to solution-focused climate research. She is a chapter lead for the US Fifth National Climate Assessment and was a lead author for the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. Mach received her PhD from Stanford University and AB summa cum laude from Harvard College.
Leonard Nurse is a former Director, Coastal Zone Management Unit, and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of the Environment, Barbados and a retired Professor in the Centre for Resources Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES), UWI, Cave Hill. He is also Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, and a member of the CARICOM Task Force on climate change. Nurse has been a researcher with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and was a Member of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel of the Global Environmental Facility of the World Bank. He is a graduate of the University of the West Indies, Memorial University, and McGill University.
Hosea Olayiwola Patrick is a research fellow in the School of Built Environment and Development Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He is a transdisciplinary researcher interested in Public Policy, Environmental Politics, Geoengineering, Migration studies, Security, Peace and Conflict, Comparative Politics, Political Economy, International Relations, Area Studies, Public Administration, Research Methodology, Sustainability Research, and Climate Change. He holds a Ph.D. in Political science from the University of KwaZulu Natal (South Africa), an M.Sc. in International relations (University of Ibadan, Nigeria), and a BSc in International Studies (Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria). He has published articles on geoengineering, climate change, social cohesion, conflict and cooperation, and public policy, among others.
Masahiro (Masa) Sugiyama is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Future Initiatives (IFI), at the University of Tokyo (UTokyo). He holds a Ph.D. in climate science and a master’s degree in technology and policy, both from MIT. He is a lead author of the Working Group III’s contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). His research areas include scenario analysis of climate and energy policy and governance of climate engineering from the public engagement perspective. His most recent book is ”Controlling the Climate: The Risky Last Resort of Global Warming Countermeasures” (published by KADOKAWA).
Shuchi Talati is a Scholar in Residence at the Forum for Climate Engineering Assessment at American University. She was most recently the Chief of Staff of the Office of Fossil Energy & Carbon Management at the U.S. Department of Energy in the Biden-Harris Administration. She was also previously the UCS Fellow on solar geoengineering research governance and public engagement with the Climate & Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Dr. Talati was the 2017-2018 AAAS/AIP Congressional Science Fellow and served at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Obama. Dr. Talati earned a BS in environmental engineering from Northwestern University, an MA in climate and society from Columbia University, and PhD from Carnegie Mellon in engineering and public policy. Dr. Talati stepped away from the Committee for government service from April of 2021 to April of 2022.
Former Members
Rajul (Raj) Pandya served on the committee until October of 2022. He is the founding director of the American Geophysical Union’s Thriving Earth Exchange. He helped launch and lead the Resilience Dialogues – a public-private partnership that uses facilitated online dialogues to help subject matter experts and community leaders work together to take steps toward community resilience. He has led education programs at a National Center for Atmospheric Research and multi-disciplinary efforts to increase diversity in the sciences. Pandya is a founding member of the board of the Citizen Science Association, former commissioner of Education and Human Resources for the American Meteorological Society, and chaired the National Academies committee on “Designing Citizen Science to Support Science Learning.” He is a board member for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Public Lab and the Anthropocene Alliance. He holds a Ph.D. from University of Washington in Atmospheric Science.
Kevin Knobloch served on the Committee until April of 2021. He served as former Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of Energy where he directed the Office of the Secretary. He is currently the President of New York OceanGrid LLC, where he has led Anbaric’s efforts to develop offshore wind transmission. Prior to joining the Department of Energy he was the President of the Union of Concerned Scientists for ten years, leading the science-based organization’s strategic, analytical, legislative, and policy functions. Knobloch was also Senior Research Fellow at the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He holds a Bachelors of Arts from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Advisory Committee Staff
Sally Klimp is the Executive Coordinator for the SCoPEx Advisory Committee at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). She acts as the liaison between the Committee and SCoPEx Research Team to provide advice on research and governance of SCoPEx. Prior to her position at SEAS, she supported faculty at Harvard Business School. She is also an alum of AmeriCorps, working with both the Student Conservation Association in Shenandoah National Park and Teach for America in Memphis, TN. She earned her B.A. in Biology and Environmental Analysis and Policy from Boston University and M.L.A. in Strategic Management from Harvard University.