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Dr. Brian Helmuth FN’07

Dr. Brian Helmuth is Director of the Environment and Sustainability Program at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, an interdisciplinary program within the College of Arts and Sciences that involves more than 140 affiliated faculty from nine different colleges and schools within the USC system. Also a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, Helmuth’s research explores the effects of climate and climate change on coastal marine organisms. Specifically, he uses combination of field work, remote sensing, laboratory measurements and mathematical modeling to forecast the impacts of climate change on commercially and ecologically important marine species.  A major goal of this approach is to predict where, when, and with what magnitude the effects of environmental change are most (and least) likely to occur so that this information can be proactively used by decision makers, a form of adaptation to climate change. To this end, he serves on the Adaptation Working group of the Association of Climate Change Officers, and serves on the technical writing team of the National Climate Assessment.  Helmuth received his PhD in 1997 from the University of Washington in Seattle, and spent two years as a post-doctoral research associate at Stanford from 1997-1999.  Since 1999 he has served on the faculty at USC.  Helmuth is a Fellow of the Aldo Leopold Leadership program, which trains select scientists to interact with policy makers and the public, and was named a Google Scholar in 2011 in the area of climate change.  He regularly works with K-12 teachers throughout South Carolina and often includes teachers in field work. He has published over 55 peer-reviewed journal articles and is regularly invited to speak at Universities and symposia throughout the world about the ecological impacts of global climate change.