December 2, 2009

Heidi Cullen, Climate Central, Director of Communications, Senior Research Scientist

The year 2009 brought with it major changes in the economic, political, as well as media landscape. This talk will explore how these recent changes may have impacted the public’s perception of climate change as well as discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the United States as COP-15 plays out. One of those challenges will require inventing new models for science journalism and one of those opportunities may require a redefinition of what it means to be a scientist.



Climate Central is a new nonprofit science and media organization created to provide clear and objective information about climate change and its potential solutions. Heidi Cullen shares the approach that Climate Central has developed.



Dr. Heidi Cullen is a senior research scientist with Climate Central, a non-profit research and communications organization headquartered in Princeton, NJ. Climate Central combines sound science and vivid media to increase public understanding and attention to the climate challenge. Dr. Cullen currently provides reports on climate for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Before joining Climate Central, Dr. Cullen helped create Forecast Earth on The Weather Channel, the first weekly television series to focus on issues related to climate change and the environment. Dr. Cullen worked as a research scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO. She received a bachelor's degree in engineering/operations research from Columbia University and went on to receive a doctorate in climatology and ocean-atmosphere dynamics at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University.

1. Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Oil Substitutes
2. U.S. Energy Future: Transportation Fuels
3. Sustainable Energy Systems: Scale, Tradeoffs, and Co-Benefits
4. Economic Analysis of the Solar Industry
5. Solar Photovoltaic Installation and Financing
6. Solar Cell Technology in 2009 and Beyond
7. Solar Energy at Scale
8. Communicating Climate Science in a Changing Media Landscape

The Energy Seminar is produced by the Woods Institute and the Precourt Institute for Energy (PIE) at Stanford University. and is comprised of an interdisciplinary series of talks primarily by Stanford experts on a broad range of energy topics.



The Precourt Institute for Energy (PIE) has been established as a new independent institute at Stanford that engages in a broad-ranging, interdisciplinary program of research and education on energy -applying fundamental research to the problem of supplying energy in environmentally and economically acceptable ways, using it efficiently, and facing the behavioral, social, and policy challenges of creating new energy systems for the U.S. and the world.