Naomi Oreskes
Naomi Oreskes is Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. Oreskes is a world-renowned geologist, science historian, public speaker and bestselling author of both scholarly papers and popular articles on science, technology, and public affairs. She is also a leading voice on the role of science in society, the reality of anthropogenic climate change, and the role of disinformation in blocking climate action. Oreskes is the bestselling author of over 10 books, including Merchants of Doubt, which she co-authored with Erik Conway, which has been translated into nine languages and made into a documentary film produced by Participant Media and distributed by Sony Pictures Classics. She has lectured widely and won numerous prizes, has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, and her Ted Talk, Why We Should Trust Scientists, has over 1 million views.
Naomi Oreskes Professional Experience / Academic History
Professional Experience
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Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences
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Professor of History and Science Studies, and Adjunct Professor of Geosciences
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Associate Professor of History and Philosophy of Science
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Assistant Professor of Earth Sciences and Adjunct Asst. Professor of History
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Research Assistant, Geology Department, and Teaching Assistant, Depts. of Geology
Academic History
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Ph.D., Geological Research and History of Science
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B.Sc., First Class Honors
PRAISE FOR HER PUBLICATIONS
Her 2004 essay “The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change” has been cited more than 2500 times, both in the United States and abroad.
It was featured in the landmark Royal Society publication “A Guide to Facts and Fictions about Climate Change" and in the Academy Award–winning film An Inconvenient Truth.
Her 2010 book, co-authored with Erik M. Conway, Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco to Global Warming, was shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times book Prize, won the Watson-Davis Prize from the History of Science Society, and has been translated into seven languages.
Oreskes and Conway have also written The Collapse of Western Civilization (Columbia University Press, 2014), which has been a best seller in France, and has been translated into eleven languages.
SELECT HONORS & RECOGNITIONS
2019 Geological Society of American Mary C. Rabbitt Award
2019 British Academy Medal
2017 American Academy of Arts and Sciences
2016 Stephen Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication
2015 Herbert Feis Prize of the American Historical Association
2014 American Geophysical Union Presidential Citation for Science and Society
2011 Climate Change Communicator of the Year
2009 Francis Bacon Medal
AFFILIATION
Fellow, American Geophysical Union
Fellow, Geological Society of America
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Fellow, American Philosophical Society
MEDIA & PUBLICATIONS
Her opinion pieces have appeared in major newspapers around the globe including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times.
Her insights have also appeared in The Times (London). Nature, Science, The New Statesman, Frankfurter Allgemeine, and many others.