Benjamin I. Cook
NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies• 2880 Broadway • New York, NY • 10025
Research Interests
Interactions and feedbacks between the land surface, terrestrial ecosystems, and the climate system.
Education/Employment
11/09-present Research Physical Scientist (GS-13) NASA-GISS,
Adjunct Research Scientist, Ocean and Climate Physics (LDEO)
6/09-10/09 Scientific Programmer/Analyst, NASA-GISS/Sigma Space Partners
6/07-5/09 NOAA Global Change Postdoctoral Fellow, NASA-GISS/LDEO
1/04-5/07 Ph.D. Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia
8/01-1/04 M.S. Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia
8/97-5/01 B.S. Environmental & Forest Biology. State University of New York College of
Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF), magna cum laude
Awards/Fellowships
2007 NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship
2007 Maury Environmental Sciences Prize (UVA)
2005 Moore Research Award, Department of Environmental Sciences (UVA)
2004 Exploratory Research Award, Department of Environmental Sciences (UVA)
2003 Robert Ellison Award for Interdisciplinary Studies (UVA)
Funded Proposals/Grants
“Forecasting phenology: Integrating ecology, climatology, and phylogeny to understand plant responses to climate change.” Working Group Proposal, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. PI with Elizabeth Wolkovich
"Paleoclimate Shocks: Environmental Variability, Human Vulnerability, and Societal Adaptation During the Last Millenium in the Greater Mekong Basin." NSF Award GEO-0908971, CO-PI
"North American Megadrought: Atmosphere-Ocean Forcing and Landscape Response from the Medieval Period to the Near-Term Greenhouse Future." NSF Award ATM-0902716, CO-PI
“Historical estimates of terrestrial vegetation and carbon dynamics using millennial scale soil moisture reconstructions.” Climate Center Committee, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Research Highlights in the Media
“Dust Bowl has Human Fingerprint”, Discovery News,
Michael Reilly. March 23, 2009
“Weather History Offers Insight Into Global Warming”, New York Times-Science Times,
Anthony DePalma. September 15, 2008
“What made the Dust Bowl bad is in its name”, LiveScience,
Jeanna Bryner. May 5, 2008
Workshop Participation
2008 ILeaps Workshop, “Current understanding of how integrated land ecosystem-atmosphere
processes influence climate dynamics”
2008 Alpine Summer School, Course XVI: “Interaction and Coevolution of Climate and the
Biosphere”
2006 ASP Summer Colloquium-The Art of Climate Modeling, National Center for
Atmospheric Research
2005 NCCR Climate Summer School, Grindelwald, Switzerland.
Invited Talks
Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting (August 4, 2009): “Efficacy of Climate Models for Projecting Changes in Species Phenology.”
Abrupt Change Meeting, LDEO, (July 9, 2009): “Abrupt Changes in Climate Dust: Past and Future.”
SUNY Stonybrook (April 29, 2009): “Amplification of the 'Dust Bowl' drought through human induced land degradation.”
Georgia Tech (March 31, 2009): “Amplification of the 'Dust Bowl' drought through human induced land degradation.”
UC Boulder (March 31, 2009): “Amplification of the 'Dust Bowl' drought through human induced land degradation.”
PAGES Meeting, Dalat, Vietnam (February 16, 2009): “Objective Determination of Monsoon Onset, Withdrawal, and Length.”
National Phenology Network Meeting (September 16, 2008): “The North Atlantic Oscillation and regional phenology prediction over Europe.”