Speaker
Details

To solve sustainability crises, we need actionable knowledge to inform action. While the science of actionable knowledge has evolved quickly, less is known about how and why actionable knowledge scales up and with what consequences. We advance three pathways to scale up actionable knowledge: 1) broadening participation by increasing the diversity and number of people participating in the production of actionable knowledge; 2) diffusing actionable knowledge uptake by actors who did not participate in its production, and 3) aggregating its impact by engaging with actors whose decisions affect a large number of people. These pathways intersect, complement, and interact with each other. They also encompass tradeoffs and opportunities that can lead to tensions and synergies across different scales of decision-making.
Professor of Sustainability and Development, Climate + Energy at the University of Michigan, Maria Carmen Lemos' broad research interests are related to climate adaptation and the role of knowledge in building adaptive capacity. She is particularly interested in understanding: (a) the co-production of science and decision-making and the creation of actionable knowledge; (b) the intersection between development and climate, especially concerning the relationship between anti-poverty programs and risk management; (c) the use of climate information in building adaptive capacity in different sectors (e.g. drought planning, water management, agriculture, and urban planning); and (d) the impact of technocratic decision-making on issues of democracy and equity.
Lemos was a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC-AR5) and the Fourth US National Climate Assessment (NCA4), contribute to IPCC-AR4, and has served in a number of the US National Research Council of the National Academies of Sciences committees including Restructuring Federal Climate Research to Meet the Challenges of Climate Change (2007 and 2009), America Climate Choice Science Panel (2010) and the Board on Environmental Change and Society (2008-2014) and the Council Committee to Advise the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP)—(2011-13).
Please register here (lunch provided), and arrive at 12:00 noon if you would like lunch in advance of the lecture.
- Metropolis Project
- CGI: M.S. Chadha Center for Global India
- Brazil LAB Princeton University
- ProCES: Program for Community-Engaged Scholarship