Lobell’s innovative use of remote sensing, statistics, ecosystem modeling and agronomy addresses challenges at the nexus of agriculture, food security and the environment. His work shows that investments in agriculture are one of the most cost-effective ways of limiting climate change.
The Lobell Lab at Stanford has accomplished numerous recent breakthroughs, demonstrating that in many agricultural systems, climate change is already affecting productivity. His team used new empirical approaches to show the importance of heat to major agricultural crops, including the impact of short periods of very high temperatures. By developing improved methods to use satellite data to measure agricultural productivity and management practices, he furthered scientific understanding of how specific interventions can improve productivity.
Lobell further identified unique adaptations and investments for improving world food security. He continues to chart the path toward the future of interpreting satellite imagery to predict key sustainable development outcomes and improve our understanding of agriculture’s interface with the environment.
“I am really honored to join an incredible list of past recipients, who have done so much to advance agricultural science,” said Dr. Lobell. “It is gratifying to see the empirical approaches that I’ve worked on recognized as valuable by my peers. In my early years, it was pretty hard to convince people that anything not based on traditional experimentation could add value.”