AI and Climate: Leveraging Technology for Environmental Impact

Christopher Graham Rapley CBE (born 8 April 1947) is a British scientist and scientific administrator. He is Professor of Climate Science at University College London, a member of the Academia Europaea, Chair of the European Science Foundation‘s European Space Sciences Committee, Patron of the Surrey Climate Commission, a member of the scientific advisory board of Scientists Warning, a member of the UK Clean Growth Fund Advisory Board, and a member of the UK Parliamentary and Scientific Committee. His previous posts include Director of the Science Museum, London, Director of the British Antarctic Survey, Chairman of the London Climate Change Partnership, President of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, Vice President of the European Science Foundation’s European Polar Board, Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, and founder and leader of UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory‘s (MSSL) Remote Sensing Group.

Amanda Staudt is Senior Director for the Climate Crossroads initiative at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Climate Crossroads is a major initiative to harness the full complement of expertise and skills across the National Academies to tackle the climate crisis. Dr. Staudt provides strategic direction and leadership for this initiative, develops new partnerships and climate-related activities, and advances communications and engagement efforts to extend the reach and impact of the National Academies. From 2013-2023, Dr. Staudt directed the National Academies’ Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (BASC) and Polar Research Board (PRB), leading a team that provides advice to the US government and the nation related to climate change, weather, air pollution, the Arctic, and Antarctica. Under her leadership, BASC and PRB provided stewardship for the National Academies’ ongoing advice to the U.S. Global Change Research Program; convened large workshops related to Arctic research and policy; completed major studies on extreme event attribution, Antarctic research priorities, negative emissions technologies, greenhouse gas emissions, solar geoengineering, and Earth system science; ran an Academies-wide Climate Communication Initiative; and launched major roundtables on climate security and on climate and macroeconomics. Prior to taking on this role, Dr. Staudt was a Senior Climate Scientist at the National Wildlife Federation, where she focused on communicating climate science and impacts, developing the intellectual and practical foundation for climate-informed ecosystem conservation, and advancing climate change science education. Prior to her time at NWF, Dr. Staudt was a Senior Program Officer at the National Academies, where she directed the Climate Research Committee and a number of high-profile studies, including the fast-track review of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program Strategic Plan, and studies on weather research for surface transportation and radiative forcing effects on climate. She also spear-headed the development of the Academy’s first booklet on climate change targeted to public audiences. Dr. Staudt received her B.A. in environmental science and engineering and her Ph.D. in atmospheric sciences from Harvard University.

Dr. Natalia Efremova is Senior Research Fellow for Machine Learning and AI in Agriculture (Secondment). Natalia has an MBA from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Kyoto. Natalia has a background in both academia and industry research. Over the past 10 years, she has been working in the field of deep learning for image and video processing. Previously, Natalia was a Research Fellow in the University of Oxford, where she taught courses on AI and neural networks to MBA and executive students.

Natalia’s research focuses on applications of machine learning for pursuing sustainable goals. This includes defining the areas where ML tools would be especially advantageous within targets related to climate change, gender equality, sustainable agriculture, water, and food scarcity, as well as monitoring progress towards market adoption of the new AI-based technologies for water-, agri- and waste- tech industries.

David Rolnick is an Assistant Professor and Canada CIFAR AI Chair in the School of Computer Science at McGill University and at Mila – Quebec AI Institute. His research group focuses on innovations in machine learning to address challenges related to climate change, including areas like biodiversity monitoring, land use classification, climate model emulation, and materials discovery. He also holds roles as Co-founder and Chair of Climate Change AI, Scientific Co-director of Sustainability in the Digital Age, and Canada lead for the NSF-NSERC Global Center on AI and Biodiversity Change (ABC). In 2021, he was recognized in MIT Technology Review’s “35 Innovators Under 35” for his contributions to the field of machine learning and climate change. His previous positions include being an NSF Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UPenn and an NSF Graduate Research Fellow at MIT.