EDF Chief Scientist Steven Hamburg named AAAS Fellow

(WASHINGTON—April 18, 2024) The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has announced its 2023 class of AAAS Fellows, including Steven Hamburg, Chief Scientist of Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). This lifetime honor, which follows a nomination and review process, recognizes scientists, engineers and innovators across 24 disciplinary sections for scientific excellence, fostering trust in the communities they serve and leading the next generation of scientists. The group includes notable scientists in the fields of biological science, chemistry, medical science, engineering, neuroscience and physics.

Hamburg, who joined EDF in 2008, was recognized for distinguished contributions to the field of biogeochemistry, with particular reference to forest carbon cycles and global methane emissions. He is the only scientist from an environmental nongovernmental organization on this year’s list of 502 fellows.

“It’s a great honor to be recognized by my colleagues, especially as a scientist focused on policy-relevant climate research,” Hamburg said.

Since his first peer-reviewed research on the impacts of climate change on Red Spruce more than 35 years ago, Hamburg has published more than 100 scientific papers. A former faculty member at Brown University, he is an expert on climate change, methane emissions, forest biogeochemistry and soils. He served as a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and was recognized as contributing to its award of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

As EDF’s Chief Scientist, Hamburg ensures the scientific integrity of EDF’s positions and programs and leads work in collaboration with researchers from a diversity of organizations, including academic institutions, and governments around the world. 

Hamburg is currently leading EDF’s efforts to quantify methane emissions and serves as the project lead of MethaneSAT, which launched earlier this year. He also serves as Chair of the Science Oversight Committee of the International Methane Emissions Observatory of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Global methane studies, a joint effort of UNEP.

AAAS is celebrating the 150^th anniversary of its fellows program. Notable fellows include Alondra Nelson, Mae Jemison, Steven Chu, W. E. B. Dubois, Ellen Ochoa, Grace Hopper and Vint Cerf. AAAS, a nonprofit, is the world’s largest general scientific society. It publishes the journal Science, Science Translational Medicine, Science Signaling, a digital, open-access journal, Science Advances, Science Immunology and Science Robotics. Founded in 1848, AAAS includes more than 250 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals.