Overview
Drew Shindell is Nicholas Professor of Earth Science at Duke University. From 1995 to 2014 he was at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City and taught at Columbia University. He earned his Bachelor's at UC Berkeley and PhD at Stony Brook University, both in Physics. He studies climate change, air quality, and links between science and policy. He has been an author on >250 peer-reviewed publications, received awards from Scientific American, NASA, the NSF and the EPA, and is a fellow of AGU and AAAS.
He has testified on climate issues before both houses of the US Congress (at the request of both parties), developed a climate change course with the American Museum of Natural History, and made numerous media appearances as part of his outreach efforts. He chaired the 2011 UNEP/WMO Integrated Assessment of Black Carbon and Tropospheric Ozone, and was a Coordinating Lead Author on the 2013 Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC and on the 2018 IPCC Special Report on 1.5°C. He also chairs the Scientific Advisory Panel to the Climate and Clean Air Coalition of nations and organizations.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Recent Publications
Preserving carbon dioxide removal to serve critical needs
Journal Article Nature Climate Change · April 1, 2025 Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is critical to most net-zero pathways, especially given challenges due to slow decarbonization, hard-to-abate (H2A) economic activities and non-CO2 GHGs. However, land-based CDR, which is the most widely deployed currently and ... Full text CiteFuture CH4 as modelled by a fully coupled Earth system model: prescribed GHG concentrations vs. interactive CH4 sources and sinks
Journal Article
Environmental Research: Climate
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March 31, 2025
We have used the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) Earth system model GISS-E2.1 to study the future budgets and trends of global and regional CH4 under different emission scenarios, using both the prescribed GHG concentrations as well as the ...
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Increased Asian Sulfate Aerosol Emissions Remarkably Enhance Sahel Summer Precipitation
Journal Article Earth's Future · November 1, 2024 Observational evidence shows that Sahel summer precipitation has experienced a considerable increase since the 1980s, coinciding with significant diverging trends of increased sulfate emissions in Asia and decreased emissions in Europe (dipole pattern of a ... Full text CiteRecent Grants
Supporting SLCP Assessments on Food/Agriculture and Economics
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by United Nations Environment Programme · 2025 - 2026The Potential Environmental Effects of Lithium Mining and Extraction
ResearchCo-Principal Investigator · Awarded by Albemarle Corporation · 2023 - 2024Biomass burning in the NASA GISS ModelE2: uncertainty and interactions between emissions, transport and chemistry
ResearchCo-Principal Investigator · Awarded by National Aeronautics and Space Administration · 2017 - 2022View All Grants