Dr. Michael E. Mann
Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania
Director of Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media
Dr. Michael Mann is Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, with a secondary appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication. His research focuses on climate science and climate change. He was selected by Scientific American as one of the fifty leading visionaries in science and technology in 2002, was awarded the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geophysical Union in 2012. He made Bloomberg News‘ list of fifty most influential people in 2013. He has received the Friend of the Planet Award from the National Center for Science Education, the Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication from Climate, the Award for Public Engagement with Science from the AAAS, the Climate Communication Prize from the American Geophysical Union and the Leo Szilard Award of the American Physical Society. He received the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement 2019 and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2020. He is a Fellow of the AGU, AMS, GSA, AAAS and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He is co-founder of RealClimate.org, author of more than 200 peer-reviewed and edited publications, numerous op-eds and commentaries, and five books including Dire Predictions, The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars, The Madhouse Effect, The Tantrum that Saved the World, and The New Climate War.
Shannon Christiansen
Senior Research Coordinator
Shannon Christiansen is the Senior Research Coordinator in the Mann Research Group. Her research focuses on using climate models and paleoclimate proxies to study climate change and climate variability. Prior to coming to Penn, she worked as a Laboratory Research Assistant in a paleoclimate core processing lab at the University of Pittsburgh, studying paleolimnology and hydroclimate variability. Shannon Christiansen received her B.S. in Environmental Science from the University of Pittsburgh in 2018 and will be completing her M.S. in Earth Science from the University of Minnesota Duluth this year.
Heather Kostick
Administrative Coordinator of Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media
Heather Kostick is the Administrative Coordinator for the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media. Heather manages center communications, planning, and programming while collaborating with Penn organizations and centers, as well as, external organizations to further the center’s mission of science and sustainability communication in the media. She joins PCSSM after having previously worked for the Masters of Environmental Studies and Applied Geosciences programs in LPS. Heather received her B.Sc. in Wildlife Conservation from Juniata College, her M.E.S. from the University of Pennsylvania, and is a Ph.D. candidate in Environmental Science at Drexel University.
Post Doctoral Researchers
Dr. Judit Carillo
Judit is a postdoctoral fellow researching glacial-interglacial cycles. Prior to joining the Mann Research Group, she recieved her Ph.D. in physics and worked in the private sector specializing in software development and cloud security. Judit also worked as a researcher in the Earth and Atmosphere Observation Group (GOTA) of the University of La Laguna (Canary Islands, Spain), studying climate risk and the socioeconomic impact of climate change in small islands .
Dr. Xueke Li
Xueke is a postdoctoral fellow researching the impacts of climate change on extreme weather events, with a particular interest in the role of Arctic Amplification in driving extreme weather events in the mid-latitudes. She recieved her Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Conneticut, her M.S. in Cartography and GIS and her B. Eng. in Earth Science and Engineering.
Graduate Students
Annabelle Horton
Annabelle is a first year PhD establishing a ~1000 year record of Nor’easters occurring on the Northeastern U.S. coast using a combination of sedimentary proxy records and historical documentation. This research is currently exploring using eDNA as an identification signal for Nor’easter overwash deposits. Prior to beginning the graduate program at Penn, her undergrad research focused on completing field work experiments to verify the reliability of foraminifera as a proxy for sea level rise. She recieved her B.S. in Environmental Science with Applied Ecology from Temple.
Chris Larson
Chris is a 2nd year PhD student using earth system models of intermediate complexity to model Greenland ice sheet melt and the subsequent sea level rise during interglacials in order to identify possible tipping points in the Greenland ice sheet system with future climate change. Prior to his graduate work at Penn, he conducted undergraduate research on carbon dioxide concentration flux in State College, Pennsylvania, ice rafted debris from Antarctica, black carbon from California wildfires, and soil carbon turnover time in California grasslands. He received his B.S. in Meteorology from Texas A&M University.
Kenzie Weaver
Kenzie is a 1st year PhD student and her research focuses on using high-resolution climate models to determine how Nor’easter characteristics, such as storm track and intensity, may vary in a changing climate. Prior to starting at Penn, she conducted undergraduate research that focused on how climate change may impact tropical cyclone genesis and landfall locations. She received her B.S. in Environmental Science from Rowan University.
Undergraduate Students
Alice Andrews
Undergrad Research Assistant
Alice is a Junior studying Environmental Studies with a concentration in Sustainability and Environmental Management. Her research interests include international environmental policy, and examining oxygen and boron isotopes as a proxy for ocean pH and acidification.
Brendan Chapko
Undergrad Research Assistant
Brendan is a Junior in the Earth and Environmental Sciences department and is double majoring in Finance and International Relations in addition to Environmental Science. His research focuses on understanding the economic and societal implications of Nor’easters.
Kevin Chen
Senior Thesis Researcher
Kevin is a Senior studying Physics and is conducting his senior thesis with the Mann Research Group. His research focuses on applying a tracking algorithm to documented climate data to identify past Nor’easters.