Kim Knowlton

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC); and Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health

Kim Knowlton is Senior Scientist and Deputy Director of NRDC’s Science Center. She focuses on the public health impacts of climate change, and advocates for strategies to prepare for—and prevent—these impacts, especially in vulnerable communities. She studies heat- and ozone-related mortality and illness in U.S. and India, plus climate change’s links to infectious illnesses, flooding, aeroallergens, and respiratory ailments. Knowlton was a co-convening lead author on the Human Health chapter of the Third U.S. National Climate Assessment, and participates in the New York City Panel on Climate Change. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, a master’s in environmental and occupational health sciences from Hunter College, and a doctorate in public health from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health—where she now serves as an assistant professor in the Climate and Health Program of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences. She is based in New York.