William Moomaw

Dr. William Moomaw is Emeritus Professor of International Environmental Policy and Founding Director of the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy at The Fletcher School. He received his B.A. degree in chemistry from Williams College and Ph.D. in physical chemistry from MIT. He had a 26-year career in chemistry and environmental studies at Williams College, where he directed the Center for Environmental Studies. After addressing stratospheric ozone depletion, he began working on climate change in 1988 as the first director of the climate program at World Resources Institute in Washington. He has been a lead author of five Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Reports. The IPCC shared the Nobel Peace Prize for its climate work in 2007. He is currently working on natural solutions to climate change with a focus on increasing carbon dioxide removal and sequestration by forests, wetlands, and soils to compliment emission reductions from land use changes and fossil fuels with zero carbon renewable energy. He is a co-author of a recent paper declaring a Climate Emergency that has been endorsed by over 11,000 scientists.

He chairs the board of directors of two climate science and policy organizations, The Climate Group North America and Woods Hole Research Center. He also serves on the boards of directors of The Nature Conservancy of Massachusetts, the Consensus Building Institute, and Earthwatch Institute, and is on the National Advisory Boards of the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Young Voices for the Planet.

He and his wife, Margot, completed a zero net energy home in Williamstown, MA in 2007 that produces sufficient solar electricity to meet all of its heating, lighting, and appliance requirements while exporting surplus power to the grid. They have recently added more solar panels for a battery powered electric vehicle.

Education

• Ph.D. in physical chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• B.A. in chemistry, Williams College