Mark Lawrence is a scientific director at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), leading the research cluster SIWA, Sustainable Interactions with the Atmosphere. SIWA focuses on the impacts and mitigation of short-lived, climate-forcing pollutants (SLCPs), particularly in the face of global urbanization, and on the potential impacts, uncertainties and risks of “climate engineering”.

Prof. Dr. Lawrence received his Ph.D. in 1996 in Earth and Atmospheric Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, (USA). His Ph.D. research was mainly conducted at the Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry (MPIC) in Mainz. 

From 2000 until 2005, Prof. Dr. Lawrence led an independent junior research group at MPIC, and in 2006 he took over the atmospheric modelling group at MPIC. He received his Habilitation in 2006 at the University of Mainz, where he also served as interim professor for meteorology during 2009–2010, winning the 2010 annual Teaching Award from the State of Rheinland-Pfalz, as well as a University Teaching Award. Prof. Dr. Lawrence is author or co-author of over 100 peer-reviewed publications. He co-coordinated the EU project “MEGAPOLI” (2008–2011), and now coordinates the EU project “EuTRACE” (European Transdisciplinary Assessment of Climate Engineering). 

Prof. Dr. Lawrence has served as editor for the journals Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, and Atmospheric Environment, and has served or serves on various international committees, most notably the Science Team of the UNEP Atmospheric Brown Clouds project (ABC), the Scientific Steering Committee of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry project (IGAC), and the Commission on Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Pollution (CACGP). In 2013 he became a contributing author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 

This seminar series, held jointly by the Harvard University Center for the Environment (HUCE) and MIT’s Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, explores the science, technology, governance and ethics of solar geoengineering. In bringing together international experts, participants learn some of the greatest challenges and hear opinions on how this technology could and should be managed.