Delta Lead Scientist
The Delta lead scientist oversees the Delta Science Program and consults regularly with partner agencies, as well as the Delta Stewardship Council and its executive officer, chief deputy executive officer, and the deputy executive officer for science. The lead scientist is secured through a multi-year appointment with the United States Geological Survey.
Current Lead Scientist
Dr. Larsen is an associate professor in the departments of Geography and Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley and is a fellow in the Berkeley Institute of Data Sciences, an affiliate of the National Center for Earth Dynamics, and an elected fellow in the Geological Society of America. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado and her work focuses primarily on how flowing water structures the form and function of landscapes, with emphases on the Florida Everglades, southern Louisiana, and streams and watersheds across the US, including intermittent streams in coastal California. Larsen’s Environmental Systems Dynamics Laboratory takes a complex-systems approach to environmental problems, seeking to understand the set of interactions and feedbacks that produce surprising or unanticipated behaviors. The lab’s approach to problems integrates fieldwork, data-driven analyses, laboratory experiments, and numerical modeling of physical processes to identify the most critical drivers of landscape-scale change and generate predictions about how landscapes will respond to climate change or changes in management.
As Dr. Larsen succeeds Dr. John Callaway, whose term expired in August 2020. View the news release that announced Dr. Larsen as lead scientist.
Previous Lead Scientists
- Dr. John Callaway, 2017-2020
- Dr. Cliff Dahm - 2008-2012 and 2015-2017
- Dr. Peter Goodwin - 2012-2015
- Dr. Michael Healey - 2007-2008
- Dr. Johnnie Moore - 2004-2006
- Dr. Sam Luoma - 2000-2003