Specialization:
Climate science
Education:
David Lea received his B.S. in Geology, Magna Cum Laude, from Haverford College (PA) in 1984 and his Ph.D. in Oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in 1990 (Thesis Supervisor Prof. Ed Boyle, MIT - member NAS).
Bio:
David Lea is Professor in the Department of Earth Science, Affiliate Faculty in the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, and a member of the Marine Science Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he has been a faculty member since 1989. He received his B.S. in Geology from Haverford College (PA) in 1984 and his Ph.D. in Oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in 1990 (Thesis Supervisor Prof. Ed Boyle, MIT - member NAS). His research interests include global climate change, past, present and future, marine geochemistry/carbon cycle, and pathways to carbon neutrality. He has published over 100 scholarly papers on these topics, including 18 in the high profile journals Science and Nature. Lea has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago and University of Cambridge, UK. His awards include the UCSB Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award (2001), a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (2002-03), a Leverhulme Visiting Professorship, a Clare Hall Visiting Fellowship (both 2002-03, Cambridge, UK), the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Emiliani Lectureship (2007) -- awarded to "individuals who have made outstanding scientific contributions to our understanding of past oceans and climates" --, a Leopold Leadership Fellowship (2009), a Jefferson Science Fellowship (2010), and a Google Science Communication Fellowship (2011). Lea was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2012, of the AGU in 2013, of Fondation IMéRA (Marseille, France) in 2015, and of the Breakthrough Institute (Oakland, CA) in 2016. In 2010-2011, as a Jefferson Science Fellow, Lea served as science advisor in the U.S. Department of State to the Honorable Todd Stern, President Obama’s Special Envoy on Climate Change (SECC) and chief U.S. negotiator of the Paris Agreement, and to the Office of Global Change (EGC). In Feb. 2018, UC President Janet Napolitano appointed Lea a member of the University of California Global Climate Leadership Council (GCLC), which advises the UC system on its Carbon Neutrality Initiative. In Sep. 2018, UCSB Chancellor Henry Yang appointed Lea faculty co-Chair of the Chancellor's Sustainability Committee. Lea is currently serving as a UCSB Principle Investigator on a Carbon Neutrality Study for CalEPA: Managing the Decline in Transportation Fossil Fuel Supply.
Research:
David Lea's research interests include the geological record of climate change and its causes/consequnces, marine geochemistry and the carbon cycle, present-day global climate change, and pathways to carbon neutrality.
Projects:
To facilitate California's goal of achieving carbon neutrality in 2045, CalEPA is funding two coordinated studies to identify pathways to reduce the demand for and supply of fossil fuels for transportation. The ultimate objective is to dramatically reduce emissions across California’s transportation sector, which, when including fossil fuel extraction and refining, accounts for half of the states' greenhouse gas emissions. I am a principal investigator on UCSB's study, which will focus on a strategic and responsible decline in transportation-related fossil fuel supply, as well as an increase in potential GHG sinks, that maximizes equity, health and environmental benefits while minimizing labor and affordability disruptions.
More information here: https://calepa.ca.gov/climate/carbon-neutrality-studies/
Publications:
Publication/Citation Summary: Google Scholar
Google Scholar contains links to all of my publications and, in most cases, the PDFs.
List of Publications since 2010, with linked pdfs
2018
105. Michael P Erb, Charles S Jackson, Anthony J Broccoli, David W Lea, Paul J Valdes, Michel Crucifix, Pedro N DiNezio: Model evidence for a seasonal bias in Antarctic ice cores. Nature communications 9 (1), 1361
104. WR Gray, S Weldeab, DW Lea, Y Rosenthal, N Gruber, B Donner, Gerhard Fischer: The effects of temperature, salinity, and the carbonate system on Mg/Ca in Globigerinoides ruber (white): A global sediment trap calibration. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 482, 607-620
2017
2016
2015
100. Lea, D.W., Climate sensitivity in a warmer world, Nature 518, 46-47, 2015
2014
97. Lea, D. W., Not so permanent El Niño, Science 344, 52-53, 10.1126/science.1252246, 2014.
2013
2012
2011
2010
Courses:
Earth 4: Oceanography (Fall 2011, Fall 2013)
Earth 105: Earth's Climate Past and Present (Fall 2012, Fall 2015, Winter 2017, Winter 2018, Winter 2019)
Earth 130: Global Warming Science and Society (Winter 2013, Spring 2014, Winter 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018)
Earth 266: Chemical Oceanography (Winter 2014, Spring 2018)
ESM 239 (Bren School): Advanced Climate Science for Policy Makers (Spring, 2013, Spring 2015, Spring 2017, Spring 2019)
This course examines the science of climate change with a focus on those issues most relevant to policy makers. Professor Lea will draw on his experience serving as science advisor to the Special Envoy on Climate Change in the U.S. Department of State. Topics include: Climate Forcing Agents and their Efficacy; Climate Sensitivity and Feedbacks; Anthropogenic Climate Change; Extreme Events; Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions; Global Temperature Limits and Mitigation Scenarios; and Geoengineering. Discussion will focus on topical issues at the nexus of climate policy and science, such as mitigation of short-lived climate pollutants like black carbon.