The School of Earth, Society, and Environment was happy to host Dr. William Easterling in the Natural History Building on Thursday, January 23rd. Dr. Easterling is the head of the geosciences directorate at the National Science Foundation and an expert on how climate change will affect human food security. He spoke about the importance of balancing of curiosity-driven and convergent research for the future of the geosciences, linking basic research to real-world problems that the geosciences aim to solve. The results of curiosity-driven research can be earth changing, but often they take decades to reach their full potential. Dr. Easterling and NSF is looking to accelerate this timeline, targeting basic research that can solve Earth system problems. Thank you Dr. Easterling for a great talk!
