2014 Walker Prize Recipient

Former director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Dr. James Hansen is an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, where he directs the program on Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions. He is the author the 2009 bestseller Storms of My Grandchildren. He was trained in physics and astronomy in the space science program of Dr. James Van Allen at the University of Iowa. His early research on the clouds of Venus helped identify their composition as sulfuric acid.

Dr. Hansen is best known for his testimony on climate change to congressional committees in the 1980s that helped raise awareness of the global warming issue. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1995 and was designated by Time in 2006 as one of the 100 most influential people on Earth. He has received numerous awards including the Carl-Gustaf Rossby and Roger Revelle Research Medals, the Sophie Prize, and the Blue Planet Prize.