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Climate Sciences

Core Capabilities
People
  • Measuring and Modeling the Terrestrial Carbon Cycle

    Scientists operate field observatories and undertake observations and ecosystem manipulation experiments.

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  • Modeling Climate Change and Climate Change Solutions

    Scientists develop predictive models that reveal the complex processes shaping and controlling the planet.

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  • Simulating Clouds, Rain, and the Water Cycle

    Knowledge in cloud and convective dynamics are incorporated into DOE’s Earth System Models.

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Overview

Publications Button
The Climate Sciences Department is the newest Earth and Environmental Sciences Area’s Department, founded in April 2007, and now has more than 100 scientific staff members. Through the Department’s ongoing contributions toward DOE’s strategic mission, and its success in attracting top talent pursuing tightly focused research goals, Berkeley Lab is recognized as one of the U.S. DOE’s National Laboratories (see FY2015 DOE Strategic Plan) with core competency in Climate Change Science.

The Department’s research capabilities lie in three primary areas:

  1. Modeling climate change and climate change solutions
  2. Simulating clouds, rain, and the water cycle
  3. Measuring and modeling the terrestrial carbon cycle.

Core Capabilities

Measuring and Modeling the Terrestrial Carbon Cycle

The Climate Sciences Department has core competency in operating field observatories and undertaking observations and ecosystem manipulation experiments to study soil biogeochemistry, vegetation dynamics, and tropical, boreal, and sub-Arctic ecology. Department members are experienced in the collection and interpretation of eddy covariance measurements, tower and aircraft observations, and isotopic measurements of CO2, CH4, CO, 13C,…

Modeling Climate Change and Climate Change Solutions

Scientists in the Climate Sciences Department are experts in developing predictive models that reveal the complex processes shaping and controlling the planet. Their scientific modeling expertise includes the ability to perform multiscale simulations of abrupt and extreme climate change through development, deployment, and diagnosis of new model frameworks. The Department is actively developing the first…

Simulating Clouds, Rain, and the Water Cycle

Departmental scientists have expertise in cloud and convective dynamics and the ability to incorporate that knowledge into DOE’s Earth System Models. Work includes studies of the energy available for triggering convection, the coupling between convection and its large-scale environment, and the transport of mass, momentum, aerosols, water vapor, and other chemical species in convection.

David Ackerly

Faculty Scientist

Phone: 510-643-6341
[email protected]

Emily Bercos-Hickey

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Phone: 510-486-5983
[email protected]

Sebastien Biraud - portrait

Sébastien Biraud

Staff Scientist

Climate Sciences Department Head

Phone: 510-486-6084
[email protected]

James K. Bishop

Senior Faculty Scientist

Phone: 510-642-6110
Fax: 510-486-5686
[email protected]

Barbara Bomfim

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Phone: 530-220-3291
[email protected]

William Ronald Boos

Faculty Scientist

Phone: 510-495-2407
[email protected]

Hanna Breunig

Research Scientist

Phone: 510-486-4046
[email protected]

Cristina Castanha

Principal Research Associate

Phone: 510-486-7500
[email protected]

Oriana Elizabeth Holtz Chafe

Research Associate

Phone: 510-505-4497
[email protected]

Jeffrey Chambers

Faculty Scientist

Phone: 510-495-2932
[email protected]

Wai-Yin Stephen Chan

Senior Scientific Engineering Associate

Phone: 510-486-4194
[email protected]

Kuang-Yu Chang

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Phone: 510-486-8141
[email protected]

John Chun Hong Chiang

Faculty Scientist

[email protected]

Housen Chu

Research Scientist

Phone: 510-486-6138
[email protected]

William D. (Bill) Collins

Director, Climate & Ecosystem Sciences Division,

Director, Environmental Resilience Accelerator (Era),

Senior Scientist

Phone: 510-495-2407
Fax: 510-486-5686
[email protected]

Yi Dai

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Phone: 510-495-8048
[email protected]

Sigrid Dengel

Scientific Engineering Associate

Phone: 510-486-4978
Fax: 510-486-5686
[email protected]

Rebecca A. Dewhirst

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Phone: 510-495-8231
[email protected]

Alan V. Di Vittorio

Research Scientist

[email protected]

Junyan Ding

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Phone: 510-486-6724
[email protected]

Nicola Falco

Senior Scientific Engineering Associate

Phone: 510-486-4703
[email protected]

Daniel Feldman

Research Scientist

Phone: 510-495-2171
Fax: 510-486-7775
[email protected]

Yanlei Feng

Graduate Student Research Assistant

Phone: 510-495-2932
[email protected]

Inez Fung

Faculty Scientist

Phone: 510-643-9367
[email protected]

Cynthia Gerlein-Safdi

Project Scientist

Phone: 609-865-5428
[email protected]

Jennifer A. Holm

Research Scientist

Phone: 510-495-8083
Fax: 510-486-5686
[email protected]

Huanping Huang

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Phone: 510-486-5983
[email protected]

Hector Alejandro Inda Diaz

Graduate Student Research Assistant

Phone: 510-495-8047
[email protected]

Kripa Akila Jagannathan

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Phone: 415-335-5834
[email protected]

Andrew D. Jones

Staff Scientist

Program Domain Lead for Earth Systems and Society

Phone: 510-486-5114
[email protected]

Noel Keen

Software Developer

Phone: 510-486-5140
[email protected]

Trevor Keenan portrait

Trevor Keenan

Faculty Scientist

Phone: 510-486-5537
Fax: 510-486-5686
[email protected]

Ryan G. Knox

Software Developer

Phone: 510-495-2153
[email protected]

Charles Dunbar Koven

Staff Scientist

Phone: 510-486-6724
[email protected]

Lara Kueppers

Faculty Scientist

Phone: 510-486-5813
Fax: 510-486-5686
[email protected]

Chaincy Kuo

Project Scientist

Phone: 510-486-7939
Fax: 510-486-5686
[email protected]

Gregory Lemieux

Software Developer

Phone: 510-486-5049
[email protected]

Xiangzhong (Remi) Luo

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Phone: 510-384-6606
[email protected]

Portrait Zelalem Mekonnen

Zelalem A. Mekonnen

Research Scientist

Phone: 510-486-7072
[email protected]

Lin Meng

Postdoctoral Fellow

Phone: 510-495-2932
[email protected]

Midhun (Mikey) Mohan

Graduate Student Research Assistant

Phone: 510-345-7683
[email protected]

Andrew Moyes

Senior Scientific Engineering Associate

Phone: 510-486-6246
[email protected]

Jessica Needham

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Phone: 510-486-6724
[email protected]

Robinson I. Negron-Juarez

Research Scientist

Phone: 510-486-7690
Fax: 510-486-5686
[email protected]

Travis A. O’Brien

Visiting Faculty

Phone: 812-269-2051
Fax: 510-486-5686
[email protected]

Ulysse Pasquier

Postdoctoral Fellow

Phone: 510-486-5128
[email protected]

Rachel C. Porras

Senior Research Associate

Phone: 510-495-2226
[email protected]

Thomas Lorin Powell

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Phone: 510-486-5532
Fax: 510-486-5686
[email protected]lbl.gov

Shaoyue (Emily) Qiu

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Phone: 701-740-8816
[email protected]

Naama Raz-Yaseef

Project Scientist

Phone: 510-486-5937
Fax: 510-486-5686
[email protected]

Ken Reichl

Affiliate

Phone: 805-813-1488
[email protected]

Robert Rhew

Guest Faculty Scientist

Affiliate

Phone: 510-643-6984
[email protected]

Alan Rhoades

Hydroclimate Research Scientist

Phone: 530-210-8344
[email protected]

William J. Riley

Senior Scientist

Phone: 510-486-5036
Fax: 510-486-7070
[email protected]

Mark Risser

Mark Risser

Research Scientist

Phone: 330-201-1857
[email protected]

David Romps

Faculty Scientist

Phone: 510-486-7175
Fax: 510-486-5686
[email protected]

Guillem Sole-Mari

Postdoctoral Fellow

Phone: 510-631-7090
[email protected]

Jennifer L. Soong

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Phone: 415-652-4085
[email protected]

Julia Szinai

Graduate Student Research Assistant

[email protected]

Jinyun Tang

Staff Scientist

Phone: 510-486-5792
Fax: 510-486-7070
[email protected]

Margaret Torn

Margaret S. Torn

Ecologist & Biogeochemist

Senior Scientist

Phone: 510-495-2223
Fax: 510-486-7775
[email protected]

Pouya Vahmani

Research Scientist

Phone: 510-486-5128
[email protected]

Ian N. Williams

Research Scientist

Phone: 510-495-8048
[email protected]

Dong Kook Woo

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Phone: 510-486-5036
[email protected]

Zexuan Xu

Zexuan Xu

Research Scientist

Phone: 510-486-5128
[email protected]

Da Yang

Faculty Scientist

Phone: 510-486-5618
[email protected]

Yao Zhang

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

[email protected]

Likun Zhang

Postdoctoral Fellow

Phone: 814-880-8824
[email protected]

Yang Zhou

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Phone: 631-317-9566
[email protected]

Qing Zhu

Research Scientist

Phone: 510-486-6546
Fax: 510-486-5686
[email protected]

Department Contacts

Sebastien Biraud - portrait

Sébastien Biraud
Climate Sciences Department Head

Bridgette Leigh Hall
Administrative Assistant III

News & Events

Cool Roofs Can Help Shield California’s Cities Against Heat Waves

August 25, 2019

Aerial view of white roofed homes and streets forming circular patterns; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA (Credit: Shutterstock)               This summer alone, intense heat waves have been to blame for at least 11 deaths in Japan, a record-breaking 45.9-degree Celsius temperature in France, and a heat advisory affecting 147 million people on the U.S. East Coast. Conjectured…

EESA Participates in Expert Briefing on Environmental Impact of Wildfires at State Capitol

April 4, 2019

Susan Hubbard, Associate Laboratory Director of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Area at Berkeley Lab, moderated an expert briefing on the impact California wildfires were having on the environment at the state capitol in Sacramento today. The event is the latest in a series of briefings hosted by the California Council on Science & Technology…

EESA Identifies Potential Power of Climate Model Diagnostic Tool To Improve Global Extreme Storm Predictions

March 28, 2019

  By adapting scaling formulas that are traditionally used to diagnose the overall behavior of extreme rainfall events in a warming climate, atmospheric scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UC Irvine have demonstrated that the potential exists for these formulas to capture the dynamics of individual rainstorms globally. Heavy rainstorms that can cause floods,…

EESA Researchers Examine Greenhouse Gas Flux In Arctic Tundra

November 28, 2018

Three hundred twenty miles north of the Arctic circle in Barrow on Alaska’s northern slope, average high temperatures are at or below zero degrees Fahrenheit for 160 days per year. This cold, harsh climate creates a vast expanse of permafrost to help make this Arctic tundra biome one of the biggest carbon sinks on the…

How Drought and Other Extremes Impact Water Pollution

October 15, 2018

This Q and A article appeared first on the Berkeley Lab News Center. Previously, the work of the Watershed Function SFA Research team was featured during a podcast for News Deeply. You can hear Bhavna Arora talk about her research here.   One in 10 Americans depends on the Colorado River for bathing and drinking.…

EESA Climate Experts Show Methane’s Effects on Sunlight Vary by Region

September 27, 2018

Scientists investigating how human-induced increases in atmospheric methane also increase the amount of solar energy absorbed by that gas in our climate system have discovered that this absorption is 10 times stronger over desert regions such as the Sahara Desert and Arabian Peninsula than elsewhere on Earth, and nearly three times more powerful in the…

Upcoming Events

  • Jan 27

    Science Communication Workshop

    Wednesday, January 27, 11 am - 1 pm, 2021

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