Alex de Sherbinin is the Associate Director for Science Applications at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), an environmental data and analysis center within The Earth Institute at Columbia University specializing in the human aspects of global environmental change. He also serves as deputy manager of the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC); co-Coordinator of the Population-Environment Research Network (PERN); co-chair of the International Council for Science (ICSU) WDS-CODATA Citizen Science Data Task Group; and co-author of the bi-annual Environmental Performance Index (EPI). He is a member of the scientific committee of the ICSU World Data System (WDS), the editorial board of The Geographical Journal, and the advisory committee for the Platform on Disaster Displacement, and holds a visiting appointment with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Dr. de Sherbinin is a geographer whose research interests focus on the human aspects of global environmental change and geospatial data applications, integration, and dissemination. He is lead or co-author on 55 peer reviewed articles and chapters, including lead authored articles appearing in Annual Reviews of Environment and Resources, Climatic Change, Environmental Research Letters, Global Environmental Change, Science, and Scientific American. He has written on a range of topics, including climate vulnerability mapping; climate change and migration; urban climate vulnerability and resilience; population dynamics and the environment; environmental indicators; and remote sensing applications for environmental treaties.
Dr. de Sherbinin holds a PhD in Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation from ITC at the University of Twente (Netherlands), and MA and BA degrees in geography from Syracuse University and Dartmouth College, respectively. Prior to joining CIESIN, he served as a USAID Population-Environment Fellow with the Social Policy Program of International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN, Gland, Switzerland), and a Population Geographer at the Population Reference Bureau (PRB, Washington, DC). From 1984-1986 he served as an agricultural extension agent with the U.S. Peace Corps in Mauritania, West Africa.
He has profiles on ResearchGate and LinkedIn, a Twitter feed, and blog postings through the Earth Institute 's State of the Planet, CODATA and WDS blogs.