Naomi Oreskes

Harvard University

Based in

United States
North America

Naomi Oreskes is the Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science and an Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. A globally recognized earth scientist, historian, and public speaker, she is the author of the best-selling book Merchants of Doubt (2010) and a prominent advocate for the role of science in society. Oreskes is widely known for her work on the reality of human-caused climate change and the impact of disinformation in hindering climate action.

She has authored or co-authored nine books and over 150 articles, essays, and opinion pieces. Notable works include Merchants of Doubt (Bloomsbury, 2010), The Collapse of Western Civilization (Columbia University Press, 2014), Discerning Experts (University of Chicago Press, 2019), Why Trust Science? (Princeton University Press, 2019), and Science on a Mission: American Oceanography from the Cold War to Climate Change (University of Chicago Press, 2021). Merchants of Doubt, co-authored with Erik Conway, inspired a documentary film by Participant Media, distributed by SONY Pictures Classics, and has been translated into nine languages. A new edition, featuring an introduction by Al Gore, was published in 2020.

Oreskes also wrote the introduction to the Melville House edition of the Papal Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality, Laudato Si. Her essays and opinion pieces on climate change have been featured in leading newspapers worldwide, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Times (London), and Frankfurter Allgemeine.

Among her many accolades are the 2019 Geological Society of America’s Mary C. Rabbitt Award, the 2016 Stephen Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication, the 2015 Public Service Award of the Geological Society of America, the 2015 Herbert Feis Prize of the American Historical Association for Public History, and the 2014 American Geophysical Union Presidential Citation for Science and Society. Oreskes is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. In 2018, she was named a Guggenheim Fellow, and in 2019, she received the British Academy Medal.

Her new book, with Erik Conway, is The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market, published by Bloomsbury Press.