Alex de Sherbinin, Ph.D.

Dr. Alex de Sherbinin is the Director at the Center for Integrated Earth System Information (CIESIN), an environmental data and analysis center within Columbia Climate School specializing in the human aspects of global environmental change. He is a geographer whose research interests focus on the human aspects of global environmental change and environmental sustainability, as well as geospatial data applications, integration, and dissemination. He has authored or co-authored more than 75 journal articles, and is the lead author of articles appearing in Science, Annual Reviews of Environment and Resources, Climatic Change, Environmental Research Letters, and Global Environmental Change. His research centers on climate vulnerability mapping; climate change and migration; environmental indicators; citizen science data; and remote sensing applications. He serves as manager of the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC); he is a lead author of the World Bank’s Groundswell report series, and the biennial Environmental Performance Index (EPI); and also teaches in Columbia’s Climate & Society program.

De Sherbinin holds a PhD in Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation from ITC at the University of Twente (Netherlands), and MA and BA degrees in geography from Syracuse University and Dartmouth College, respectively.