The 2026 GCC Invited Speakers will be announced soon! <!–

Dr. Hilary Palevsky

Title: Surviving and Thriving in a World in Crisis: Tales from an Academic Climate Science Career

Hilary is an Assistant Professor in the Boston College Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. Her research centers on the ocean’s role in global biogeochemical cycling, with a particular focus on understanding how the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, a key influence on global climate and ongoing climate change. To address these questions, her research group conducts fieldwork to deploy and calibrate autonomous biogeochemical sensors, measures samples in the laboratory, and analyzes data from sensors deployed in the field, often together with complimentary datasets such as from satellite remote sensing and global climate model simulations. She also teaches classes on ocean and climate science from the undergraduate through graduate levels, and considers it essential to her scientific and educational role to work to build a more inclusive, supportive, and equitable scientific community and world.

Before beginning her current position in 2019, she was a Lecturer at Wellesley College, a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and received her PhD in Oceanography and a graduate certificate in Climate Science at the University of Washington. Prior to beginning her graduate studies, she earned a B.A. in Geology from Amherst College, spent a year studying North Atlantic cod fisheries as a Thomas J. Watson Fellow and taught marine science on traditionally-rigged schooners in Long Island Sound. She lives in the Boston area with her (academic) spouse, their 1-year-old baby, three cats, and a very good dog. –>

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