Michael I. Westphal

Michael I. Westphal is an environmental scientist with interests at the intersection of climate change, environment and development and is member of the Core Team of the World Development Report 2010: Development and Climate Change. He received a PhD in Environmental Science, Policy and Management from UC Berkeley, where his dissertation concerned ecological modeling and conservation planning for birds in the Mount Lofty Ranges in South Australia. He did postdoctoral work on ecological-economic modeling at UFZ-Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig, Germany, and on marine reserves at Arizona State University. As an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow in the Office of International Affairs at the EPA, he worked on a multidisciplinary weapons nonproliferation program in the former Soviet Union, whose goal was to re-direct former weapons scientists to environmental research. Since 2006, Michael has worked at various departments at the World Bank in the area of climate change adaptation, developing knowledge products such as the World Bank Climate Change Data Portal and the ADAPT screening tool and conducting various climate change analyses. He is also a contributing author to the edited book, Adapting to Climate Change in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union (World Bank 2009). Michael has also consulted to the Inter-American and African Development Banks in the areas of biodiversity and climate change adaptation.