Persad Named Climate Leader

November 1, 2021

Assistant Professor Geeta Persad was selected by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) as one of eight “Generation Climate” leaders. The honor recognizes a “rising generation of powerful and passionate young people, whose creativity, resilience and impatience are already making an impact on every aspect of this fight,” wrote EDF President Fred Krupp in the summer edition of Solutions magazine.

The honorees appeared on the magazine’s cover, which includes a short article on each leader.

“I am tremendously honored to have received this recognition, especially given the caliber of other Climate Leaders featured,” Persad said. “The honor has been an emphatic validation to continue the impact-motivated and policy- interactive scientific work my group has been investing in. It is particularly gratifying to be recognized in this way by an organization like EDF, which itself is doing such important climate change research and advocacy.”

The article on Persad highlights her 2020 research conducted in partnership with the Union of Concerned Scientists on how climate change is expected to influence California’s water supply (more on this research, Climate Extremes Threaten California’s Water). The article also mentioned Persad’s work on how aerosol particles such as soot generated in the United States can suppress rainfall in far-off places like Indonesia.

“Geeta is a very sharp scientist who’s not satisfied to let others make the world a better place,” said Michael Oppenheimer, the former chief scientist at EDF and a mentor of Persad’s, in the article. “She’s eager to do some of that heavy lifting herself.”