Senior Lecturer and Senior Research Associate
Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Biography

Douglas MacMartin is a Senior Research Fellow in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University.  His research focuses on climate engineering (also known as solar geoengineering or climate intervention) with the aim of helping to develop the knowledge base necessary to support informed future societal decisions in this challenging and controversial field.  He has published extensively on the subject, and in addition to public and academic presentations has provided briefings to the UN Environment Program and testimony to the US Congress, and was a member of the US National Academies panel that made recommendations on both research and governance in March 2021. He received his Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT in 1992; previous positions include United Technologies Research Center (1994-2000) and the California Institute of Technology (2000-2015).  His research is funded by NSF and by the Cornell Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future.

Research Interests

Dr. MacMartin works at the interface between engineering feedback analysis and climate dynamics, using tools from engineering dynamics and control to solve critical questions in climate science. His primary focus is on solar geoengineering or albedo modification (understanding whether we can “control” Earth’s climate), he also conducts research on other applications in climate dynamics, such as climate variability (e.g. of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation or the El Nino/Southern Oscillation). Research interests also include dynamics and control of structural vibration, noise, and flows.

• Space Science and Engineering
• Energy and the Environment

Selected Publications

• MacMartin, D G., B. Kravitz, J C. Long, P J Rasch.  2016. “Geoengineering with stratospheric aerosols: What do we not know after a decade of research?.”  Earth’s Future 4 (11): 543-548.
• MacMartin, D G., B Kravitz.  2016. “Dynamic climate emulators for solar geoengineering.”  Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 16 (24): 15789-15799.
• Kravitz, B., D G. MacMartin, P J. Rasch, H Wang.  2016. “Technical Note: Simultaneous fully dynamic characterization of multiple input-output relationships in climate models.”  Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 1-20.
• MacMartin, D G., L. Zanna, E Tziperman.  2016. “Suppression of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation Variability at Increased CO 2.”  Journal of Climate 29 (11): 4155-4164.
• Kravitz, B., D G. MacMartin, H. Wang, P J Rasch.  2016. “Geoengineering as a design problem.”  Earth System Dynamics 7 (2): 469-497

Selected Awards and Honors

• Faculty Fellow, Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future (Cornell University) 2016
• AACC O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper, Applications (American Control Conference) 2011
• Outstanding Achievement Awards for technical contributions in helicopter cabin active noise control for laboratory demonstration and successful flight test (UTRC) 1994