Panel 1
Global Perspectives on Climate and Water
Panelists discussed how climate change impacts global water systems, adaptation strategies, and the management of water resources across national boundaries. View the video and read more about the panelists below.
PANELISTS
Matthew Child
Physical Scientist
International Joint Commission
Matthew Child is a physical scientist with the International Joint Commission's Great Lakes Regional Office in Windsor, Ontario. Canada and the United States formed the International Joint Commission (IJC) to facilitate cooperative management of transboundary water resources. The IJC is responsible for approving projects that impact transboundary water levels and flows and investigating and recommending solutions for transboundary water quantity and quality issues.
Child's primary role at IJC is to support the Science Advisory Board's Science Priority Committee, which advises the Commission and its Water Quality Board on a range of scientific matters. He serves as staff lead for several ongoing Science Advisory Board projects addressing the influence of the changing climate on Great Lakes water quality.
Matt Rodell
Deputy Director of Earth Sciences for Hydrosphere, Biosphere, and Geophysics
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Matthew Rodell, PhD, is the deputy director of Earth Sciences for Hydrosphere, Biosphere, and Geophysics (HBG) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. HBG comprises more than 400 scientists and engineers within five laboratories involved in remote sensing and numerical modeling of land and ocean processes and related applications. Rodell has also served as associate deputy director for HBG and chief of the Hydrological Sciences Laboratory. He is a member of the science teams for NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow On (GRACE-FO) mission and future GRACE Continuity (GRACE-C) mission. He leads the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) and projects focused on monitoring groundwater storage changes, mapping and forecasting drought/wetness, and detecting climate-related variations in the water cycle.
Rodell is a past associate editor for the Journal of Hydrology and a current editor for the Journal of Hydrometeorology. He has also chaired the Hydrology Program for the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting (2009-2011) and led various national and international scientific working groups. He received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2006, a NASA/GSFC Earth Science Achievement Award in 2007, a Robert H. Goddard Award for Exceptional Achievement in Science in 2011, and an Arthur S. Flemming Award for outstanding federal service in the area of basic science in 2015. He was elected to the rank of AGU Fellow in 2022. Rodell has more than 150 peer-reviewed publications and appears on Clarivate Web of Science's 2018-2023 lists of Highly Cited Researchers. He holds a BS in environmental science from the College of William and Mary and a PhD in geological sciences from the University of Texas at Austin.
Eliza Swedenborg
Manager, Strategy and Performance, Water Program
World Resources Institute
Eliza Swedenborg sees water as a vital element of our interconnected global challenges and an essential lens through which to envision change. In her work, she seeks to understand where we are most out of sync with water—intersecting with climate, agriculture, cities, nature, and well-being—and how shifts in economics, trade, and finance might bring us back into balance with water and each other.
Swedenborg's work previously focused on water and climate in Ethiopia, leading and supporting initiatives to enhance institutional capacity to manage growing water demands and climate risks, accelerate watershed conservation and restoration, and promote urban water resilience through city and regional planning and governance.
Before joining WRI, Swedenborg served in the Peace Corps in Mali as an agriculture and community development volunteer. She holds an MBA from the Wisconsin School of Business and a BA in environmental studies from Gustavus Adolphus College. In 2014, she participated in the Singularity University Graduate Studies Program.
MODERATOR
Debjani Ghatak
Lecturer, School of Environmental Sustainability
Loyola University Chicago
Debjani Ghatak, PhD, is a hydro-climatologist and a passionate teacher. She has 10 years of college-level teaching experience and has published several peer-reviewed journal articles. Ghatak worked as a postdoc at Rutgers University and Johns Hopkins University and as a visiting assistant professor at Texas A&M University. She also worked closely with diverse groups of scientists and stakeholders from The City University of New York, Columbia University, Rutgers University, and NASA. She was a panel member on NASA and National Science Foundation proposal review committees. Ghatak works closely with undergraduate students on Arctic hydro-climatology and has set up an experimental field site at Loyola University Retreat and Ecology Campus as part of an undergraduate research project.
PANELISTS
Matthew Child
Physical Scientist
International Joint Commission
Matthew Child is a physical scientist with the International Joint Commission's Great Lakes Regional Office in Windsor, Ontario. Canada and the United States formed the International Joint Commission (IJC) to facilitate cooperative management of transboundary water resources. The IJC is responsible for approving projects that impact transboundary water levels and flows and investigating and recommending solutions for transboundary water quantity and quality issues.
Child's primary role at IJC is to support the Science Advisory Board's Science Priority Committee, which advises the Commission and its Water Quality Board on a range of scientific matters. He serves as staff lead for several ongoing Science Advisory Board projects addressing the influence of the changing climate on Great Lakes water quality.
Matt Rodell
Deputy Director of Earth Sciences for Hydrosphere, Biosphere, and Geophysics
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Matthew Rodell, PhD, is the deputy director of Earth Sciences for Hydrosphere, Biosphere, and Geophysics (HBG) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. HBG comprises more than 400 scientists and engineers within five laboratories involved in remote sensing and numerical modeling of land and ocean processes and related applications. Rodell has also served as associate deputy director for HBG and chief of the Hydrological Sciences Laboratory. He is a member of the science teams for NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow On (GRACE-FO) mission and future GRACE Continuity (GRACE-C) mission. He leads the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) and projects focused on monitoring groundwater storage changes, mapping and forecasting drought/wetness, and detecting climate-related variations in the water cycle.
Rodell is a past associate editor for the Journal of Hydrology and a current editor for the Journal of Hydrometeorology. He has also chaired the Hydrology Program for the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting (2009-2011) and led various national and international scientific working groups. He received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2006, a NASA/GSFC Earth Science Achievement Award in 2007, a Robert H. Goddard Award for Exceptional Achievement in Science in 2011, and an Arthur S. Flemming Award for outstanding federal service in the area of basic science in 2015. He was elected to the rank of AGU Fellow in 2022. Rodell has more than 150 peer-reviewed publications and appears on Clarivate Web of Science's 2018-2023 lists of Highly Cited Researchers. He holds a BS in environmental science from the College of William and Mary and a PhD in geological sciences from the University of Texas at Austin.
Eliza Swedenborg
Manager, Strategy and Performance, Water Program
World Resources Institute
Eliza Swedenborg sees water as a vital element of our interconnected global challenges and an essential lens through which to envision change. In her work, she seeks to understand where we are most out of sync with water—intersecting with climate, agriculture, cities, nature, and well-being—and how shifts in economics, trade, and finance might bring us back into balance with water and each other.
Swedenborg's work previously focused on water and climate in Ethiopia, leading and supporting initiatives to enhance institutional capacity to manage growing water demands and climate risks, accelerate watershed conservation and restoration, and promote urban water resilience through city and regional planning and governance.
Before joining WRI, Swedenborg served in the Peace Corps in Mali as an agriculture and community development volunteer. She holds an MBA from the Wisconsin School of Business and a BA in environmental studies from Gustavus Adolphus College. In 2014, she participated in the Singularity University Graduate Studies Program.
MODERATOR
Debjani Ghatak
Lecturer, School of Environmental Sustainability
Loyola University Chicago
Debjani Ghatak, PhD, is a hydro-climatologist and a passionate teacher. She has 10 years of college-level teaching experience and has published several peer-reviewed journal articles. Ghatak worked as a postdoc at Rutgers University and Johns Hopkins University and as a visiting assistant professor at Texas A&M University. She also worked closely with diverse groups of scientists and stakeholders from The City University of New York, Columbia University, Rutgers University, and NASA. She was a panel member on NASA and National Science Foundation proposal review committees. Ghatak works closely with undergraduate students on Arctic hydro-climatology and has set up an experimental field site at Loyola University Retreat and Ecology Campus as part of an undergraduate research project.