Teaching
- ESPP90h Climate, Crops, and Food Security (undergraduate, Fall 2025) The number of people suffering from hunger began to increase in 2015, after decades of steady decline, and began to rise more sharply since the beginning of the COVID pandemic. The drivers of these trends in food security and malnutrition that are highlighted by international aid agencies are conflict, economic shocks, and climate extremes. In this course we will inquire, specifically, into linkages among climate change, extreme weather events, agricultural production, and food insecurity, and also consider the broader context of how conflict, socioeconomic, and health conditions may be susceptible to extreme weather and influence the ability to mitigate and adapt to changes in extreme weather. The answer to this inquiry is important: insomuch as climate change is a fundamental driver of recent decreases in food security, the almost inevitable continued changes in climate in the coming decades are of major concern for food security going forward. Moreover, identification of the specific pathways by which climate change influences food security is critical for devising appropriate mitigation and adaptation measures. We will cover how variations in temperature, water, and sunlight influence crop yield; how exposure to these environmental variations alters under climate change; connections between food production shocks and food insecurity; and the degree to which changes in food security can be predicted. Individual classes will be organized around academic papers encompassing distinct viewpoints, and through reading, discussion, and hearing from outside speakers. We will, as a class, seek some overall understanding of the drivers of food insecurity and how these can, at least in principle, be addressed. syllabus
- EPS/ESE168 Human Environmental Data Science (undergraduate, Spring 2025) The purpose of this course is to develop and guide student-led research on human and environmental systems. In class we will explore agriculture, conflict, and transmissible disease. Study of each topic will involve introduction to data, mathematical models, and analysis techniques that build toward addressing a major question at each interface: Have agricultural systems been adapted to climate change? Has drought caused conflict? And does the environment influence the spread of COVID-19? These questions are diverse, but are addressed using common analytical frameworks. Analytical approaches include simple mathematical models of feedback systems, crop development, and population disease dynamics; frequentist statistical techniques including linear, multiple linear, and panel regression models; and Bayesian methods including empirical, full, and hierarchical approaches. You will be provided with sufficient data, example code, and context to come to your own informed conclusions regarding each of these questions. syllabus
- EPS139/239 Paleoclimate as prologue (graduate and undergraduate, Spring 2024) In this course we will explore and quantitatively assess major past events in Earth history involving temperature, sea level, and the cryosphere and compare these with respect to our understanding of current and predicted changes.The class will take a raw-data and first-principles approach to the subject. Raw data in the sense that we will work with quantities that are directly observed in order to make estimates and draw inferences, and first principles in the sense of focussing on basic mechanisms. Working backward in time, topics will include modern temperature variability, the Little Ice Age, Medieval Warm Period, and more ancient climates. Each class will involve lecture, discussion, and in-class data analysis. syllabus
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