Cynthia Rosenzweig, a senior research scientist and head of the Climate Impacts Group at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City and co-chair of the World Adaptation Science Programme (WASP) in the Science Committee, received the 2022 World Food Prize from the World Food Prize Foundation on May 5.
According to the World Food Prize Foundation, the World Food Prize is a prestigious international award conceived as the "Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture" with a mission to elevate innovations and inspire action to sustainably increase the quality, quantity, and availability of food for all.
Rosenzweig was selected for the award for her research to understand the relationship between climate and food systems and forecast how both will change in the future. Her modelling work has provided a foundation for decision-makers around the world to create strategies to mitigate climate change and adapt our food systems to a changing planet, which has helped communities worldwide address the consequences of Earth’s changing climate.
“I am thrilled and honored to receive the World Food Prize this year because food systems are now emerging as a key component of climate change,” said Rosenzweig.
Rosenzweig has been a research scientist at NASA GISS and head of the Climate Impacts Group since 1994. Her research focuses on improving models and assessments of how climate change will affect agriculture and the food supply in the future. In addition, she uses data from NASA satellites and models to study agricultural regions around the world and how they are changing. Rosenzweig has previously served as coordinating lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group II Fourth Assessment Report in 2007 and the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land in 2019.
She is also a co-founder of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP), an international project using climate science, crop modeling and economic modeling to understand crop yield and food security in a changing climate. Over 1,000 researchers from developed and developing nations have partnered with AgMIP to improve agricultural models and techniques to assess the future impacts of climate change on agriculture and food systems both regionally and globally. Through AgMIP, Rosenzweig has worked on research projects studying the effects of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide on crops as well as quantifying greenhouse gas emissions released through food production.
For more information about the World Food Prize visit: https://www.worldfoodprize.org/
For more information about Cynthia Rosenzweig: https://www.giss.nasa.gov/staff/crosenzweig.html