by Bob Henson
Denise Stephenson Hawk. (Photo
by Carlye Calvin.) |
The tragic collision of government policy, demographics, and nature
made Hurricane Katrina one of the nation’s worst calamities
in memory. Denise Stephenson Hawk sees this disaster as a classic
example of how multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research concerning
the impacts of weather and climate on people and communities can
serve the nation and world.
“Regardless of the degree of accuracy of the predictions of
the storm’s track or its intensity, Katrina was still a disaster
of huge proportions,” says Stephenson Hawk. “Hurricanes
Katrina, Rita, and Floyd highlight the need for SERE and the urgency
of its research.”
As the newest associate director of NCAR, Stephenson Hawk now
leads
SERE—the center’s Societal-
Environmental Research and Education Laboratory. SERE’s
work on the Earth system includes the study of human-
environment interactions and the generation of policy-relevant
guidance on weather and climate topics. The lab also incorporates
the Advanced Study Program, which supports graduate and postdoctoral
appointments throughout NCAR.
“If I could define the ideal position for myself, then this
would be it,” says Stephenson Hawk of her new job. For one
thing, working with both physical and social scientists is something
she knows well. At Clark Atlanta University, she was the founding
director of the interdisciplinary Earth Systems Science Program,
which involved the natural and social sciences as well as the humanities.
A physical scientist herself, Stephenson Hawk also served as professor
and interim chair of Clark Atlanta’s physics department.
Also on Stephenson Hawk’s diverse résumé are
leadership posts in academia (she served as provost for Spelman College,
her alma mater) and industry (at AT&T Bell Laboratories), as
well as senior-level consulting on federal transportation programs
and extensive service on national advisory councils and committees.
Stephenson Hawk’s first contact with NCAR came during her undergraduate
years at Spelman, when she attended a talk by NCAR scientist Warren
Washington. “Warren focused on the dynamics of climate change
and the ways that the traditional disciplines of mathematics, physics,
chemistry, and biology contributed to our understanding of weather
and climate,” she recalls. The talk was a life-changing event
for Stephenson Hawk, who decided to shift from mathematics to environmental
modeling. She went on to become the first African American and the
second woman to earn a doctorate in geophysical fluid dynamics at
Princeton University.
One of SERE’s goals is to examine the ways in which social
science can help citizens, governments, and businesses grapple with
the challenges of weather and climate change. The topic is red-hot
now, but Stephenson Hawk believes it’s important to make sure
the attention is sustained—by expressing global projections
in terms of regional implications, for example.
“Once the global problem becomes local, people will become
more likely to respond to it,” she says. “Katrina was
a regional hurricane that had both national and global consequences.
Unless we focus our resources to better understand, develop, and
implement plans to address both the unfavorable and favorable consequences
of weather and climate, then the benefits of our predictive capabilities
will not be realized.”
In New Orleans, as well as many other regions, it’s those with
limited resources who suffer the most from uncertainties in climate
and weather. In studying how people respond and the associated impacts,
says Stephenson Hawk, “you have to understand the continuum
of the spectrum, from people who don’t have clean water to
drink to those who have everything at the touch of a finger.” |
