Great Problems, Great Minds: Stanford's Ken Caldeira Discusses Climate Science

Join the Department of Social Sciences online for its second event in the Great Problems, Great Minds seminar series. This event is focused on climate science and features Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science and a professor at Stanford University’s Department of Earth System Science.

Climate science occurs at the boundary of physical science and social science. Physical science is about what is physically possible–what is consistent with the known laws of nature. But in social systems, people have their own goals and values. Physical science becomes a tool that helps people attain their goals in ways that are consistent with their values. As a climate scientist, Ken Caldeira is committed to providing scientific and technical information to people so that they can decide what they want to do, given their values and goals.

Future Seminars

Sept. 15, 2020

Bonnie Jenkins, International Security and Weapons.

Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins was nominated by President Barack Obama in April 2009 and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in June 2009 as Special Envoy and Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs in the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation (ISN), U.S. Department of State (DOS).

Sept. 22, 2020

Elijah Anderson, Urban Society.

Elijah Anderson is the Sterling Professor of Sociology and of African American Studies at Yale University. He is one of the leading urban ethnographers in the United States.

Sept. 29, 2020

Costa Samaras, Infrastructure Resilience.

Costa Samaras is an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Samaras analyzes how energy technology and infrastructure system designs affect energy use and national security, resilience to climate change impacts, economic and innovation outcomes, and life cycle environmental externalities.

Oct. 6, 2020

Shamsnaz Bhada, Engineering Humanitarian Missions.

Shamsnaz Bhada is an assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering focusing on systems engineering. Systems engineering concepts push the domain boundary by not only supporting engineering missions but also humanitarian and social missions.

Oct. 13, 2020

Martin Pfeiffer, Nuclear Weapons and Society.

Martin Pfeiffer from the University of New Mexico and the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History is an expert in the interaction of Nuclear Weapons and Society.

Date TBA

Jesse Jenkins, Low Carbon Energy Systems.

Jesse Jenkins leads the Princeton ZERO Lab—the Zero carbon Energy systems Research and Optimization Laboratory—which conducts research to improve decision-making to accelerate rapid, affordable, and effective transitions to net-zero carbon energy systems.