Research Highlights
September 2007
Jae Edmonds Appointed Chief Scientist
Congratulations to Jae Edmonds on his recent appointment by the U.S. Department of Energy as Chief Scientist for the Integrated Drivers and Systems Responses (IDSR) program within the Office of Science's Climate Change Research Program. As the Chief Scientist, Edmonds will provide leadership and advice on integrated assessment to the IDSR program.
Through its support and management of scientific research, the IDSR program provides insights into the interaction of multiple facets of climate change that would not be available from disciplinary research alone. The IDSR program also develops tools that enable economic analysis and scenario development, and provides a framework in which greenhouse gas emissions, climate, climate change impacts, and adaptation to climate change can be simultaneously and consistently examined.
One of the principle components of the IDSR program's research portfolio is the development and exercise of integrated assessment models. These models are core decision support tools that can assist decision makers in the determination of safe levels of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. They achieve this by formally representing the various determinants of greenhouse gas emissions, including demographic, economic, energy, and land use decision making, as well as through representations of the atmosphere, climate, oceans, and climate impacts and adaptation in an internally consistent framework.
A senior staff scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Jae is also a Laboratory Fellow and Chief Scientist at the Joint Global Change Research Institute, a collaboration between the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Maryland. He is internationally recognized for his contributions to the field of integrated assessment of climate change and the examination of interactions between energy, technology, policy and the environment.
Congratulations on your new appointment, Jae!