Name Daniel Schrag Role Professor | Awards MacArthur Fellowship | |
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Education University of California, Berkeley, Yale University | ||
The Question of Nature: A Geological Perspective on Human-Induced Climate Change
Daniel P. Schrag (born January 25, 1966) is Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology and Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering at Harvard University, where he directs the Harvard University Center for the Environment (since 2004), and co-directs the Program on Science, Technology and Public Policy in the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is also an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute.
Schrag received his B.S. in geology & geophysics and political science from Yale University in 1988. He received his Ph.D. in geology from University of California, Berkeley in 1993 under the supervision of Donald J. DePaolo and Frank M. Richter.
Schrag's research interests include Earth history, climate change, energy technology, and energy policy. He has co-authored over 160 publications on a wide variety of topics. He has studied climate change over the broadest range of Earth’s history, including how climate change and the chemical evolution of the atmosphere influenced the evolution of life in the past, and what steps might be taken to prepare for impacts of climate change in the future. He helped to develop (with his colleague Paul F. Hoffman) the hypothesis that the Earth experienced a series of extreme glaciations, called “Snowball Earths” that may have stimulated a rise in atmospheric oxygen and the proliferation of multicellular animals. He is also interested in how we can use climate events in the geologic past to understand our current climate challenges. Dan has worked on a range of issues in energy technology and policy including advanced technologies for low-carbon transportation fuel, carbon capture and storage, and risks and opportunities of shale gas.
Schrag was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2000 and served from 2009 to 2016 on President Obama’s Council of Advisors for Science and Technology (PCAST), contributing to many reports to the President including energy technology and national energy policy, agricultural preparedness, climate change, and STEM education.