Diana M. Liverman
University of Arizona
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Primary Section: 64, Human Environmental Sciences Secondary Section: 63, Environmental Sciences and Ecology Membership Type:
Member
(elected 2020)
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Biosketch
Diana Liverman is a geographer recognized for her work on the human dimensions of global environmental change. She is known for her work on vulnerability to climate change and the connections between climate and food security. Liverman was born in Accra, Ghana and grew up in England where she completed her B.A. in geography at University College London. She moved to Canada for her MA and then to UCLA where she completed her Ph.D. in geography in conjunction with a fellowship at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. She served on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Penn State before joining the University of Arizona in 1996. She returned to the UK as a chair and director of the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University in 2003, and in 2010 she returned to Tucson to become the co-director of the Institute of the Environment and then the Director of the School of Geography, Development and Environment. She is member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, received the Founders Gold Medal from the Royal Geographical Society and is currently a member of the Earth Commission.
Research Interests
Diana Liverman's current research focuses on the connections between climate and development, especially the synergies and trade offs between the responses to climate change, poverty alleviation and sustainable development goals. This builds on her long term interests in understanding how people become vulnerable to climatic changes, especially in agricultural and food systems, and how climate adaptation, including climate services, can help them cope. She has also studied aspects of environmental governance, including the effectiveness of carbon offsets and the impacts of trade agreements on the US-Mexico border. She uses multiple methods in her research including computer modeling, interviews, social surveys and data analysis. She was a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on 1.5C and is part of interdisciplinary teams that have published on planetary boundaries and pathways to a sustainable future.
