Kenneth J. Davis

Professor Davis studies the earth’s climate system, in particular the terrestrial carbon and water cycles. His research is motivated by the need to understand how humans are changing the climate via emissions of greenhouse gases and how we can best manage and minimize climate change and its impacts. He designs observational strategies using aircraft, towers and remote sensing to measure the exchange of carbon and water between the earth and the atmosphere. He integrates these measurements with numerical models of the atmosphere, terrestrial ecosystems, and human activity to further our understanding of the climate system. He earned an A.B. degree in Physics with a Certificate in Theater and Dance, with honors, from Princeton University in 1987, and a Ph.D. in Astrophysical, Planetary and Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1992, and then spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder.