Climate One is delighted to present the 2024 Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication to political scientist Leah Stokes.

Leah Stokes is an expert in climate and energy policy. As both an academic and a mobilizer, she focuses on implementing policies that drive widespread decarbonization. Her rare ability to communicate complex information to academic audiences and the general public has established her as one of the most influential voices in climate action and clean energy policy. Recognized on the 2022 Time100 Next and Business Insider's Climate Action 30 lists, she also co-hosts the podcast “A Matter of Degrees.”

Join Climate One for this special in-person conversation with Leah Stokes, policy expert, climate communicator, and the Anton Vonk Associate Professor of Environmental Politics at UC Santa Barbara.

About the Award

Established in honor of Dr. Stephen H. Schneider, one of the founding fathers of climatology, Climate One’s Schneider Award recognizes a natural or social scientist who has made extraordinary scientific contributions and communicated that knowledge to a broad public in a clear, compelling fashion. Past winners include Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Ben Santer, Katharine Hayhoe, Robert Bullard, Jane Lubchenco, and Michael Mann.

About Dr. Schneider

Dr. Stephen H. Schneider was the Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, professor of biological sciences, professor (by courtesy) of civil and environmental engineering, and a senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University. Schneider received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and plasma physics from Columbia University in 1971. He studied the role of greenhouse gasses and suspended particulate material on the climate as a postdoctoral fellow at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. He was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in 1972 and was a member of the scientific staff of the National Center for Atmospheric Research from 1973 to 1996, where he co-founded the Climate Project. In 2002, Schneider was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

Internationally recognized for research, policy analysis and outreach in climate change, Schneider focused on climate change science, integrated assessment of ecological and economic impacts of human-induced climate change, and identifying viable climate policies and technological solutions. He also consulted with federal agencies and/or White House staff in the Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Clinton and both Bush administrations. His work is chronicled at climatechange.net.