Cynthia Rosenzweig Receives Outstanding Fellowship for Innovative Modelling of the Impacts of Climate Change on Global Food Production

Cynthia Rosenzweig, agricultural scientist and climatologist, received the 250.000 dollar prize in recognition of her innovative modelling of the effects of climate change on food production.

She is a senior research associate in Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and a fellow at Columbia Climate School, both in New York.

Rosenzweig, whose victory was announced at a ceremony at the State Department in Washington, said she hoped it would draw attention to the need to improve food and farming systems in order to mitigate the effects of climate change.

The World Food Prize Foundation’s Award, hosted by the Des Moines-based Agriculture Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project honored Rosenzweig as the founder of Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project.

The organisation brings together scientists from around the globe and across a wide range of disciplines to develop methodologies to enhance predictions of the future management capabilities of agriculture and food systems in the wake of global climate change.

The president of the World Food Prize Foundation Barbara Stinson, who announced the winner, acknowledged Rosenzweig for innovations that have helped nations respond to climate change.

Rosenzweig said some models his colleagues developed showed how corporations could be influenced by climate change and how they too could play a role in reversing climate change.

Goddard Institute for Space Studies

The Goddard Institute for Space Studies is a laboratory in the Earth Sciences Division of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center affiliated with the Columbia University Earth Institute. (wikipedia)