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I am a Professor of Geography (with a courtesy appointment in Agronomy) and Director of the Penn State Institutes of the Environment. I was trained as an economic geographer and climatologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Previous positions include the Department of Agricultural Meteorology at the University of Nebraska (1991-1997), Resources for the Future, Inc. in Washington DC (1987-1991), and the Illinois State Water Survey at the University of Illinois (1984-1987). My current research focuses on:
My research involves a combination of simulation modeling and field-based case studies.
Email: billeasterling@psu.edu
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(A full list of current and past projects is included in Dr. Easterling's curriculum vita)
I helped to establish and am the current Director of the Penn State Institutes of the Environment (PSIE): www.environment.psu.edu). The PSIE coordinates interdisciplinary environmental research, teaching and outreach across the University . I am responsible for overseeing the hiring of new environmental faculty among the colleges and branch campuses of the university, organizing faculty working groups to compete for research funding opportunities, overseeing a new environmental minor and an environmental policy forum, and other facilitation activities.
I also serve or have served on numerous national and international scientific advisory committees and assessment projects, including those of the National Research Council, the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U. S. Department of Energy. He served as the Acting Director of the Department of Energy's National Institute for Global Environmental Change, 1996-1998. I was a convening lead author (food security) for the Third Assessment Report of the United Nations/World Meteorological Organzation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In the winter of 2003, I co-chaired newly elected Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell's Transition Committee on Conservation and Natural Resources. I was elected to serve as the Chair of the Penn State University Research Council for 2003-2004.
"Human-Environment Research Observatory (HERO)"
Role: Co-Principal Investigator (Principal Investigator: B. Yarnal)
Period: July 1, 2000 - July 31, 2004
Agency: National Science Foundation
"Infrastructure to Develop a Human-Environment Regional Observatory (HERO) Network"
Role: Co-Principal Investgator
Period: August 1, 2000 - July 31, 2005
Agency: National Science Foundation
"Building the Role of Seasonal Climate Forecasts in South Africa"
Role: Principal Investigator
Period: October 1, 2002 - September 30, 2003
Agency: UCAR/Visiting Scientist programs
(A full list of publications is included in Dr. Easterling's curriculum vita)
Easterling, W. E., J. R. Brandle, C. J. Hays, Q. Guo, and D. S. Guertin. 2001. Simulating the impact of human land use change on forest composition in Great Plains agroecosystems with the Seedscape model. Ecological Modeling, 140: 163-176.
Mearns, L. O., W. Easterling, C. Hays, and D. Marx. 2001. Comparison of agricultural impacts of climate change calculated from high and low resolution climate change scenarios: part I. The uncertainty due to spatial scale. Climatic Change, 51: 131-172.
Easterling, W. E., L. O. Mearns, C. J. Hays, and D. Marx. 2001. Comparison of agricultural impacts of climate change calculated from high and low resolution climate change scenarios: part II. Accounting for adaptation and CO2 direct effects, Climatic Change, 51:173-197.
Polsky, Colin and W. Easterling. 2001. Adaptation to climate variability and change in the U. S. Great Plains: A multi-scale analysis of Ricardian climate sensitivities. Agriculture, Ecosystems, and the Environment, 83:133-144.
Weiss, A., Cynthia J. Hays, Qi Hu, and William E. Easterling. 2001. Incorporating bias error in calculating solar irradiance: Implications for crop yield simulations, Agronomy Journal, 93: 1321-1326.
Tsvetsinskaya E., L.O. Mearns, and W.E. Easterling. 2001. Investigating the Effect of Seasonal Plant Growth and Development in 3-Dimensional Atmospheric Simulations. Part I: Simulation of Surface Fluxes Over the Growing Season. Journal of Climate, 14: 692-709.
Tsvetsinskaya E., L.O. Mearns, and W.E. Easterling. 2001. Investigating the Effect of Seasonal Plant Growth and Development in 3-Dimensional Atmospheric Simulations. Part II: Atmospheric Response to Crop Growth and Development. Journal of Climate, 14:711-729.
Polsky, Colin and William E. Easterling. 2001. A Methodology for a Multi-Scale Analysis of Land Use with an Application to the U. S. Great Plains. Agriculture, Ecosystems and the Environment, 85: 133-144.
Gitay, Habiba, Sandra Brown, William Easterling, and Bubu Jallow (with J. Antle, M. Apps, R. Beamish, T. Chapin, W. Cramer, J. Frangi, J. Laine, Lin Erda, J. Magnuson, I. Noble, J. Price, T. Prowse, O. Sirotenko, T. Root, E. Schulze, B. Sohngen, J. Soussana). 2001. Ecosystems and Their Goods and Services. in McCarthy et al. (eds.) CLIMATE CHANGE
Stern, Paul and William E. Easterling (eds.). 1999. Making Climate Forecasts Matter. National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences, Washington, National Academy Press. (Available online)
(A full list of awards and honors is included in Dr. Easterling's curriculum vita)
Wilson Award, Honoring Excellence in Research, April 2003, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University.
Faculty Affiliate, Energy Institute, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, 1999-present.
Faculty Affiliate, Department of Agronomy, College of Agricultural Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, 2000-present.
I teach courses on human-environment relations and the human dimensions of global environmental change. I have also taught seminars on the spatial dimensions of industrial ecology and the role of scale in modeling systems in physical geography. Recent graduate advisees and post-doctoral associates (and their current positions and interests) include: