Dartmouth Engineering Faculty Set to Help Shape Global Climate Policy

Mayfield, the Hodgson Family Assistant Professor of Engineering, is a lead author for the Seventh Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an organization under the auspices of the United Nations that recommends measures for mitigating climate change based on a thorough, years-long analysis of the latest science.

Seroussi, an associate professor of engineering, is leading the science team modeling the evolution of the Antarctic ice sheet for the seventh Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project. ISMIP7 consists of a global network of scientists who will simulate changes in ice sheets worldwide to inform the AR7's projection of future sea-level rise due to the loss of ice mass.

Erin Mayfield, Dartmouth's Hodgson Family Assistant Professor of Engineering (Photo by Rob Strong '04)

Fostering synthesis and stewardship

Mayfield—who specializes in sustainable systems engineering and public policy—is one of 664 experts from 111 countries selected as a lead author for the AR7. She was nominated by the US Academic Alliance for the IPCC, a network of academic institutions that serves as an observer organization for the panel. Mayfield traveled to Paris in early December to attend the first meeting of lead authors.

"The meeting offered a valuable forum for collaboration and collective planning among contributors," Mayfield says. "Over several productive sessions, we worked together to shape the overarching structure of the report and gained a deeper understanding of the broader IPCC process. Just as importantly, the meeting created space to connect with colleagues from across the world, each bringing distinct expertise and perspectives rooted in their regional contexts."

Mayfield is helping lead the Working Group III report, which will focus on curtailing greenhouse gas emissions and removing them from the atmosphere. Their work will examine all aspects of mitigation, including technology, cost, policy, and social acceptability. All three working group reports are expected to be complete by 2028 with the IPCC’s flagship Synthesis Report slated for 2029.

In addition to her expertise in energy-systems and large-scale collaborative studies, Mayfield brings to the role her experience as an assistant director in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and a strategic adviser in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Policy during the Biden administration.

"My training and experience is highly interdisciplinary between engineering and public policy," Mayfield says in a recent interview with Thayer School of Engineering about her selection. "I see the role as not only about synthesis, but also stewardship, fostering a transparent process that strengthens the scientific basis for climate action and supports equitable, informed decision-making."

Hélène Seroussi, associate professor of engineering at Dartmouth (Photo by Eli Burakian ’00)

Leading an international effort

For ISMIP7, Seroussi will coordinate the design, gathering, and analysis of the latest experiments from the Antarctic ice sheet to refine projections of the timing and amount of ice loss from the continent over the next century.

She expects about 20 research groups to take part in simulating Antarctica, providing data that authors of the AR7 are likely to use as an important source of information about the continent’s ice sheets, Seroussi says.

"ISMIP7 will bring the international ice-sheet modeling community together to provide the best possible estimates of polar ice-sheet evolution in the next decades and centuries, and provide actionable information on sea-level rise for policymakers," Seroussi says. "It is a privilege to lead the Antarctic part of this effort and work with my colleagues throughout the world."