Faculty Spotlight- Erwan Monier

I am originally from France and came to UC Davis as a graduate student and earned a PhD in Atmospheric Science many years ago. I then spent nine years as a researcher at MIT, working in an interdisciplinary research center that brings together climate scientists, economists, policy experts, engineers, and ecologists to develop and use integrated models to examine how humans impact the climate system and how climate change affects society and the environment.

I returned to UC Davis as a faculty member in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources in 2018. Since then, I have established the Global Environmental Change Lab, which conducts interdisciplinary research aimed at understanding the drivers and consequences of global environmental change. Our work integrates process-based modeling, empirical and statistical approaches, and data science to study the interactions between humans and the environment.

Our research spans major global environmental challenges, including the fate of the biosphere (e.g., agriculture, forests, biodiversity, wildfires), interactions among climate, air quality, and human health, and the global and regional biogeochemical cycles, including water, carbon, nitrogen, and mercury cycling. Through my teaching and research, I have interacted with many exceptional EPM students and have come to see EPM as a highly relevant, impactful, and successful program that provides rigorous training on societally important issues and aligns closely with my own research interests. This year, I became a graduate advisor for EPM and look forward to continuing my engagement in the program.

What are you currently researching or working on?

My research Lab brings together high school and undergraduate interns, graduate students, and early career researchers to conduct interdisciplinary research across a range of topics. Current projects include:

• modeling and quantifying the impact of climate change and extreme weather on crop yields and water demand in California using empirical and process-based models with advanced calibration techniques and data analysis
• using terrestrial ecosystem models to quantify past changes in the global and regional carbon cycles driven by climate change, rising CO2 concentrations, nitrogen deposition, and land-use change; this work contributes to the Global Carbon Budget 2025.
• benchmarking global fire models as a contribution to FireMIP, an international collaborative effort aimed at improving global fire models and advancing our knowledge of how fires affect vegetation and terrestrial ecosystem carbon cycle.

What courses do you teach at UC Davis?

My teaching focuses on the complex interactions between humans and our environment. I teach:

• "Crisis in the Environment", an undergraduate general education Science and Society course that examines the causes, effects, and solutions to major environmental challenges, including the climate crisis, wildfires and forest management, air pollution, water scarcity, and ocean exploitation, and biodiversity loss.
• "Climate Change Science and Impacts", a graduate course that covers the fundamentals of climate change science, climate modeling, and climate communication, as well as examines the impacts of climate change across economic sectors and ecosystem services. 
• "Biometeorology", an undergraduate course exploring the interactions between the biosphere and atmosphere, including exchanges of water vapor, carbon dioxide, and energy, and the roles of radiation, soils, agricultural management, and biological processes on the behavior and physiology of plants, animals, and humans.

This year I am also co-teaching the UC Climate Resilience course, which  promotes collective hope, empowerment, and climate action, helping students gain invaluable personal and community resilience skills, building both inner and outer strengths.

What is your teaching philosophy, or what do you hope students take away from your courses? 

My aim as a teacher is to prepare and inspire students to be ethical environmental scientists who integrate scientific and societal understanding to analyze the co-evolution of humans and the global environment and its implications for contemporary environmental challenges. I emphasize clear intended learning outcomes, active learning through real-world examples and class participation, student assessment in support of intended learning outcomes, destigmatizing mistakes and failures as part of the learning process, and fostering an inclusive classroom environment. Through my courses, I hope students develop a deep appreciation for the science that underpins our understanding of the global environment, learn to recognize and counter science misinformation with strong, evidence-based communication, and gain the ability to engage critically and thoughtfully with the complex challenges and solutions related to global environmental change. 

What is a fun fact about you?

I am a juggler. During graduate school, I found juggling to be a great way to relax and even used it to prepare for my qualifying exams, often spending time juggling on the lawn outside my office building. It helped me organize my thoughts and manage anxiety. I’m now trying to reestablish that habit to cope with stress in work and life, so you may see me juggling near Hoagland Hall in the future.