Brian McAdoo
Principal Investigator
Associate Professor of Earth and Climate Science
BS Geology, Duke University
Dip. Sci. Geology, University of Otago, New Zealand
PhD Earth Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz
Brian G. McAdoo is Associate Professor of Earth and Climate Science at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, and Principal Investigator of the PlanetLab. The mission of the PlanetLab is to reduce suffering due to large-scale environmental changes.
McAdoo is interested in the effects of earthquakes, tsunami, tropical cyclones, floods and landslides on human communities. As “natural” disasters occur when geohazards impact communities, it is important to understand how people have impacted the environment in ways that make them vulnerable or resilient to shocks. How does road construction affect earthquake-generated landslides and resilience in the populous middle hills of Nepal? Did the Green Revolution increase flood risk and decrease food security in northern Thailand? Can reforestation programs in tropical rainforests reduce the occurrence of emergent infectious diseases, nutritional deficiencies and climate extremes?
Current research projects in Nepal, Borneo, Madagascar and Brazil seek to apply a Planetary Health framework to understand how coupled human-environment systems and geohazards interact with the ultimate goal of informing community resilience and reducing environmental suffering.