Peter C. Frumhoff teaches environmental science and public policy at Harvard University and is the senior science policy advisor at the Woodwell Climate Research Center. A global change ecologist, his research extends from the role of forests in climate mitigation to the climate responsibilities of fossil fuel companies to the responsible governance of solar geoengineering research.
Dr. Frumhoff serves on the Board of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the 2022 Richman Distinguished Fellow in Public Life at Brandeis University.
Through 2021, he was the longtime director of science and policy and chief climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. There, he led strategies and initiatives to bring robust climate science to bear on informing public understanding and motivating public policies; guided science, equity and innovation post-doctoral fellowships; and served as senior liaison with the scientific community, policymakers, funders and the media.
He was a lead author of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, and lead author of the IPCC Special Report on Land Use, Land-use Change and Forestry. He has guided multiple regional climate impacts assessments, including the 2007 Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment.
Dr. Frumhoff has taught at Stanford University, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and the University of Maryland. He was AAAS Science and Diplomacy Fellow at the US Agency for International Development. He received a PhD in ecology and an MA in zoology from the University of California, Davis, and a BA in psychology magna cum laude from the University of California, San Diego.