In the past few years, UCLA’s Daniel Swain has evolved into one of the most prolific and highly sought-after climate experts in the country. He conducts nearly 200 interviews each year for newspaper, radio, television, podcasts and other nontraditional media, while also maintaining a popular blog and Twitter presence (83,000 followers) under the moniker Weather West.
Meanwhile, he’s a research fellow with the Nature Conservancy, National Center for Atmospheric Research and UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability — across them, publishing dozens of peer-reviewed papers on topics ranging from megafloods to megafires. It all adds up to a unique presence in the scientific, academic and public spheres, which has forced Swain to coin the term “scientist-communicator” as his chosen profession in life.
In 2016, a postdoc research opportunity brought Swain to UCLA. It’s at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability that Swain officially became a “scientist-communicator,” as he said — a role unique to both the institute and, more broadly, the field of environmental science.
To read more about Swain’s life and work, visit UCLA Newsroom.
Image Source: Carmen Chan
