Three Dartmouth professors are among select groups of scientists worldwide recently appointed to leadership roles for major global climate-policy initiatives.
Erin Mayfield, the Hodgson Family Assistant Professor of Engineering, is a lead author for the Seventh Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an organization under the auspices of the United Nations that recommends measures for mitigating climate change based on a thorough, yearslong analysis of the latest science.
Melody Brown Burkins, Guarini ’95, ’98, director of the Institute of Arctic Studies and the UArctic Chair in Science Diplomacy and Inclusion at Dartmouth, is representing the United States as one of seven international experts compiling a report on critical issues facing the global Arctic ahead of the 52nd G7 Summit scheduled for June.
Hélène Seroussi, an associate professor of engineering, is leading the science team modeling the evolution of the Antarctic ice sheet for the seventh Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project. ISMIP7 consists of a global network of scientists who will simulate changes in ice sheets worldwide to inform the AR7’s projection of future sea-level rise due to the loss of ice mass.
Fostering synthesis and stewardship
Mayfield—who specializes in sustainable systems engineering and public policy—is one of 664 experts from 111 countries selected as a lead author for the AR7. She was nominated by the U.S. Academic Alliance for the IPCC, a network of academic institutions that serves as an observer organization for the panel. Mayfield traveled to Paris in early December to attend the first meeting of lead authors.
“The meeting offered a valuable forum for collaboration and collective planning among contributors,” Mayfield says. “Over several productive sessions, we worked together to shape the overarching structure of the report and gained a deeper understanding of the broader IPCC process. Just as importantly, the meeting created space to connect with colleagues from across the world, each bringing distinct expertise and perspectives rooted in their regional contexts.”
Mayfield is helping lead the Working Group III report, which will focus on curtailing greenhouse gas emissions and removing them from the atmosphere. Their work will examine all aspects of mitigation, including technology, cost, policy, and social acceptability. All three working group reports are expected to be complete by 2028 with the IPCC’s flagship Synthesis Report slated for 2029.
In addition to her expertise in energy-systems and large-scale collaborative studies, Mayfield brings to the role her experience as an assistant director in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and a strategic adviser in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Policy during the Biden administration.
“My training and experience is highly interdisciplinary between engineering and public policy,” Mayfield says in a recent interview with the Thayer School of Engineering about her selection. “I see the role as not only about synthesis, but also stewardship, fostering a transparent process that strengthens the scientific basis for climate action and supports equitable, informed decision-making.”
Informing global action for the Arctic
Burkins, who is an adjunct professor of environmental studies and member of the Dartmouth Climate Collaborative Advisory Council, is a recognized polar scientist and “science diplomat” with more than 30 years of experience studying and advocating for science, policy, and international collaborations that best inform inclusive governance and sustainable development.
Her work led to an invitation from the National Academy of Sciences to join the Science 7, or S7, expert group that will provide G7 world leaders with science-based recommendations for addressing the numerous challenges facing the Arctic.
Burkins and six scientists from each G7 nation—France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom—will focus on the rapid environmental transformation of the Arctic, emerging pollution pressures and climate tipping points, and the critical human dimensions of Arctic change, including the engagement of Indigenous communities in both research and policy.
Burkins will be the S7’s liaison with the National Academy during the drafting, which is being led by the French Academy of Sciences and expected to be complete in April. The final report will consist of a declaration on the current state of the global Arctic with a scientific background document and an executive summary.
“It is an extraordinary honor to represent the United States and bring Dartmouth into this global process,” Burkins says. “This S7 collaboration underscores that knowledge and policy informed by Arctic ecosystems and co-developed with Arctic peoples is critical to informing the multilateral climate action we need worldwide.”
Leading an international effort
For ISMIP7, Seroussi will coordinate the design, gathering, and analysis of the latest experiments from the Antarctic ice sheet to refine projections of the timing and amount of ice loss from the continent over the next century.
She expects about 20 research groups to take part in simulating Antarctica, providing data that authors of the AR7 are likely to use as an important source of information about the continent’s ice sheets, Seroussi says.
“ISMIP7 will bring the international ice-sheet modeling community together to provide the best possible estimates of polar ice-sheet evolution in the next decades and centuries, and provide actionable information on sea-level rise for policymakers,” Seroussi says. “It is a privilege to lead the Antarctic part of this effort and work with my colleagues throughout the world.”
