Dr. Peter De Menocal

Dean of Science for the Faculty of Arts & Sciences at Columbia University, and the Thomas Alva Edison/Con Edison Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences

About Peter

As Dean, he manages 240 faculty across nine science departments.

He is a marine geologist and paleoclimate scientist at Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the nation’s largest and top-ranked Earth Science research institute. He uses ocean sediments to understand how and why past oceans and climates have changed to provide context for present and future climate.

In 2015 he became the Founding Director of the Center for Climate & Life, a research team representing over 120 climate and life system scientists to accelerate our understanding of climate impacts on life’s essentials – our access to food, water, shelter, and energy.

He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (2013), an AGU Emiliani lecturer (2014), recipient of the Lenfest Columbia Distinguished Faculty award (2008), and the Distinguished Brooksian award (2013). He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from St. Lawrence University in 2009.