As a Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs at Princeton University, Michael Oppenheimer’s research aims to understand the potential for “dangerous” outcomes of increasing levels of greenhouse gases by exploring the effects of global warming on the ice sheets and sea level, on the risk from coastal storms,and on patterns of human migration. He joined the Princeton faculty after more than two decades with The Environmental Defense Fund. He has also used his expertise in a variety of ways, including participating in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 and cofounding the Climate Action Network.

He received an S.B. in chemistry from M.I.T., a Ph.D. in chemical physics from the University of Chicago, and pursued post-doctoral research at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Oppenheimer is the author of over 120 articles published in professional journals and is co-author of a 1990 book, Dead Heat: The Race Against The Greenhouse Effect.