Daniel Schrag

Climate Change Expert; Director, Harvard University Center for the Environment

SNAPSHOT BIO

Daniel Schrag studies climate and climate change over the broadest range of Earth's history. He is Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Professor of Environmental Science at Harvard University and Director of Harvard’s Center for the Environment.

He has examined changes in ocean circulation over the last several decades, with particular attention to El Niño and the tropical Pacific. He has worked on theories for Pleistocene ice-age cycles including a better determination of ocean temperatures during the Last Glacial Maximum, 20,000 years ago.

Dan also helped develop the Snowball Earth hypothesis, proposing that a series of global glaciations occurred between 750 and 580 million years ago that may have led to the evolution of multicellular animals. Currently he is working with economists and engineers on technological approaches to mitigating future climate change. In particular, Schrag proposes investing in carbon sequestration technology, involving the capture and storage of carbon dioxide from such sources as coal-fired power plants, as a necessary step to mitigate a large part of future greenhouse gases.

Dan was awarded a MacArthur Prize Fellowship in 2000 and in early 2009, he was appointed by President Obama to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.