Brian C. O'Neill (born 1965) is an American earth system scientist who studies the relationship between future societal development, emissions, and climate change impacts. O'Neill is known for interdisciplinary work on climate and human systems, in particular population and climate change. He was also involved in the development of the

shared socioeconomic pathways Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) are climate change scenarios of projected socioeconomic global changes up to 2100 as defined in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report on climate change in 2021. They are used to derive greenhouse gas emissions sc ...

(SSPs) to be used in

scenario analysis Scenario planning, scenario thinking, scenario analysis, scenario prediction and the scenario method all describe a strategic planning method that some organizations use to make flexible long-term plans. It is in large part an adaptation and gen ...

. He served as a lead author for several

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to "provide governments at all levels with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies". The World Met ...

reports.

Education

O'Neill obtained an

M.S. A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...

in Applied Science and a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in Earth Systems Science from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

and his undergraduate degree from the University of Delaware.

Career

After working on the science staff of the

Environmental Defense Fund Environmental Defense Fund or EDF (formerly known as Environmental Defense) is a United States–based nonprofit environmental advocacy group. The group is known for its work on issues including global warming, ecosystem restoration, oceans, an ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, he was an Assistant and Associate Professor (Research) at

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

Watson Institute for International Studies Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC) is an ultraviolet Raman spectrometer that uses fine-scale imaging and an ultraviolet (UV) laser to determine fine-scale mineralogy, and detect org ...

. From 2005 to 2009 O'Neill was at the

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is an independent International research institute located in Laxenburg, near Vienna in Austria, founded as an East-West scientific cooperation initiative during the Cold War. Th ...

(IIASA) in Austria, where he founded and led the Population and Climate Change Program. Afterwards, he returned to the United States to work at the

National Center for Atmospheric Research The US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR ) is a US federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) managed by the nonprofit University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and funded by the National Science Foundat ...

(NCAR). At NCAR, he was a Senior Scientist and led the Integrated Assessment Modeling (IAM) group. In September 2018, he started working as a professor for the

Josef Korbel School of International Studies The Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver is a professional school of international affairs offering undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees. It is named in honor of the founding dean, Josef Korbel, father ...

at the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1864, it has an enrollment of approximately 5,700 undergraduate students and 7,200 graduate students. It is classified among "R1: D ...

. In October 2020, O'Neill was appointed as director of the

Joint Global Change Research Institute The Joint Global Change Research Institute (JGCRI) is a research institute established in 2001 through a collaboration between the University of Maryland, College Park, and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The primary objective of the i ...

of the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD i ...

and the

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is one of the United States Department of Energy national laboratories, managed by the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science. The main campus of the laboratory is in Richland, Washington ...

Research

O'Neill has researched the interplay of future societal development, emissions, and climate change impacts. He has written several publications on the relationship between demography and climate change, including how demographic factors like aging or urbanization affect emission trajectories and how climate change impacts are dependent on demographic composition, which affects the ability to adapt. O'Neill uses long-term scenarios in his analysis and contributes to their development. Most notably, he was involved in the development of the

Shared Socioeconomic Pathways Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) are climate change scenarios of projected socioeconomic global changes up to 2100 as defined in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report on climate change in 2021. They are used to derive greenhouse gas emissions sc ...

(SSPs) to be used in

. These SSPs replace the

Special Report on Emissions Scenarios The Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) is a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that was published in 2000. The greenhouse gas emissions scenarios described in the Report have been used to make projection ...

(SRES) projections and will be used to systematically assess climate change under different societal futures. O'Neill was also the driving force behind the first Scenarios Forum in 2019, which he organized at the University of Denver. O'Neill has performed research on impacts from climate change by using integrated assessment modelling impacts, as well as advancing concepts on how to best systematically assess impacts. He co-led the "Benefits of Reduced Anthropogenic Climate changE" (BRACE) project to study climate change impacts and co-edited a special issue in

Climatic Change ''Climatic Change'' is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Springer Science+Business Media covering cross-disciplinary work on all aspects of climate change and variability. It was established in 1977 by Stephen H. Schneider, ...

. O'Neill has also served as a lead author for the

's Assessment Reports. For the volumes on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability (Working Group II), he was lead author for the chapter on "New Assessment Methods and the Characterisation of Future Conditions" ( AR4) and "Emergent Risks and Key Vulnerabilities" ( AR5), respectively. O'Neill is currently coordinating lead author of the

Sixth Assessment Report The Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the United Nations (UN) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the sixth in a series of reports which assess the available scientific information on climate change. Three Working Groups (WGI, II, ...

for the chapter on "Key risks across sectors and regions".Working Group II contribution to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report
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Personal life

O'Neill has been married to Celeste O'Neill for 25 years and is the father of two girls.

References

Major publications

* * * * * * * * *

External links

O'Neill's twitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:ONeill, Brian C. Living people American scientists New York University alumni 1965 births