Robert Chen

Robert S. Chen is the director and senior research scientist at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) of the Columbia Climate School in New York. He manages the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), one of NASA’s Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs). He currently co-chairs the Thematic Research Network on Data and Statistics (TReNDS) of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and co-leads the Human Planet Initiative of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO). He co-manages the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Data Distribution Center and serves as a Councilor of the American Geographical Society. He is a member of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice Committee of the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) and is active in the ESIP Disaster Lifecycle Cluster. He represents CIESIN in the North American Alliance of Hazards and Disaster Research Institutes. At CIESIN, Chen manages various sponsored projects and activities dealing with geospatial data, tools and services, sustainable development, hazards, risk, climate change, and data stewardship. Chen received his PhD in geography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and BS and MS degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.