Spotlight on U.S. Politics
Columbia experts are available to speak to the press about U.S. presidential primaries, voting, media and politics, and state and national national governance.
FIND AN EXPERT
Journalists can search the list below broken down by general topics and/or more refined focus areas to find an expert. If you need more information about a faculty member for a news piece, please email the Office of Public Affairs at [email protected].
Associate Professor, Computer Science
An associate professor of computer science at Columbia Engineering, Zhou Yu's passion is building intelligent systems that interact with humans seamlessly. She works on natural language processing and multimodal machine learning, designing algorithms for real-time intelligent interactive systems that coordinate with user actions that are beyond spoken languages, including non-verbal behaviors to attain effective and natural communications. Yu won the 2018 Amazon Alexa Prize and was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 2018 Science list.
Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Center on Poverty and Social Policy
Zach Parolin is a post-doctoral research scientist at the Center on Poverty & Social Policy at Columbia University. His research focuses on the measurement and determinants of poverty and social inequality in high-income countries.
Professor of Economics and of International and Public Affairs, Department of Economics and School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA)
Kopczuk is a professor of economics and of international and public affairs in the Department of Economics and the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). His research focuses on topics related to tax policy and income and wealth inequality. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a research fellow of the Centre for Economic and Policy Research, an editor-in-chief of the Journal of Public Economics, and the president of the International Institute of Public Finance (2021-24).
Senior Research Scientist and Director of the Regional and Sectoral Research, International Research Institute for Climate and Society
Baethgen works to improve climate risk assessment and risk management in agriculture, water resources, and natural ecosystems. He also co-led a Columbia World Project called Adapting Agriculture to Climate Today, For Tomorrow.
University Professor, Director of Columbia Global, Director of ICAP, and Director of the Global Health Initiative at the Mailman School of Public Health
Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, MPH, MPA is a University Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine at Columbia University, the director of ICAP at Columbia University, and director of the Global Health Initiative at the Mailman School of Public Health. Dr. El-Sadr is a prominent researcher and has led numerous epidemiological, clinical, behavioral, and implementation science research studies that have furthered the understanding of the prevention and management of HIV, TB, and non-communicable diseases.
Professor, Mailman School of Public Health
W. Ian Lipkin is the John Snow Professor of Epidemiology, professor of neurology and pathology and cell biology and director of the Center for Infection and Immunity. He is internationally recognized as an authority on the use of molecular methods for pathogen discovery. Dr. Lipkin has over 30 years of experience in diagnostics, microbial discovery and outbreak response.
Professor, Computer Science
Vishal Misra is a professor in the Computer Science department with a joint appointment in Electrical Engineering. He is an ACM and IEEE fellow and his research interests are in the mathematical modeling of complex systems. He is also an entrepreneur and got early access to gpt3 and developed one of the world's first commercial applications, a database search tool built on top of gpt3 running since fall of 2021 on ESPNCricinfo, a site he cofounded in the 90s. He has extensive practical experience with the inner workings of large language models such as gpt3 - the good, bad, and ugly sides of them.
Adjunct Professor, School of International and Public Affairs
Valerii Kuchynskyi is a career diplomat from Ukraine and a leading expert on the United Nations. From 2000 to 2006, he held the position of Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations with a diplomatic rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. Kuchynskyi has been closely associated with the United Nations, as a staff-member of the UN Secretariat, as a member and head of Ukrainian delegations to numerous UN fora, as Director-General of the International Organizations, as Ukraine's representative to the UN Commission on Human Rights.
Professor, Department of Political Science
Timothy Frye (PhD, Columbia, 1997) is the Marshall D. Shulman Professor of Post-Soviet Foreign Policy. His research and teaching interests are in comparative politics and political economy with a focus on the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. His most recent book is Weak Strongman: The Limits of Power in Putin's Russia
Adjunct Associate Professor, School of International and Public Affairs and the Harriman Institute
Thomas Kent teaches about the world information war and international journalism at the Harriman Institute. His focus areas are journalism, disinformation, propaganda, Russian affairs and international broadcasting.
Professor, Population and Family Health, Mailman School of Public Health
Terry McGovern currently serves as Harriet and Robert H. Heilbrunn Professor and Chair of the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health and the Director of the Program on Global Health Justice and Governance at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Her research focuses on health and human rights, sexual and reproductive rights and health, gender justice, and environmental justice.
Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs, School of International and Public Affairs
Tamar Mitts is a political scientist who uses data science and machine learning to examine the dynamics of conflict and political violence, with a focus on the causes and consequences of radicalization and violent extremism.
Associate Professor, Columbia Law School
Talia Gillis is an associate professor at Columbia Law School and an affiliate of the Data Science Institute at Columbia University. She studies the law and economics of consumer financial markets and how consumer welfare is shaped by technological and legal changes. She is interested in the role of regulation in ensuring fair and non-discriminatory outcomes in algorithmic settings.
Professor, Department of Economics and School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA)
Suresh Naidu is a professor of economics and public affairs in the department of economics at Columbia University and at SIPA. His research focuses on economic effects of political transitions, economic history of slavery and labor institutions, international migration, economic applications of natural language processing.
Stuart Gottlieb is Professor of International and Public Affairs at SIPA, where he teaches courses on American foreign policy and international security. He also serves as faculty director for SIPA’s professional certification programs in international relations and United Nations studies, and as interim director of SIPA's International Fellows Program. He is a member of the Saltzman Institute of War & Peace Studies.
Senior Vice Dean of Columbia's School of Professional Studies, and Professor, School of International and Public Affairs
Steven Cohen is the Senior Vice Dean of Columbia’s School of Professional Studies and a Professor in the Practice of Public Affairs at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. A former EPA official, he has long studied how urban communities can make themselves more resilient to disasters and longer-term challenges.
Read Steven Cohen's full bio here.
Professor, School of International and Public Affairs
Stephen Sestanovich joined the faculty of Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs in the fall of 2001 as the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of International Diplomacy. He is also the director of the International Fellows Program and the author, most recently, of Maximalist: America in the World from Truman to Obama.
Professor, Mailman School of Public Health
Stephen Morse is a professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the director of the Infectious Disease Epidemiology Certificate Program. Dr. Morse's interests focus on epidemiology and risk assessment of infectious diseases (particularly emerging infections, including influenza), and improving disease early warning systems. He is also affiliated with the Mailman School of Public Health.
Associate Dean, School of Nursing
Stephen Ferrara, associate dean of clinical affairs at the School of Nursing, oversees the ColumbiaDoctors Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Group. His focus areas are Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, vaccine acceptance among anti-vaxers and nurse practitioners in health care.
Professor, School of International and Public Affairs
Stephen Biddle is Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, a member of the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, and Adjunct Senior Fellow for Defense Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. Biddle lectures regularly at the U.S. Army War College and other military schools, and has presented testimony before congressional committees on issues relating to the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria; force planning; conventional net assessment; and European arms control.
Professor, Teachers College
Sonya Douglass Horsford is a professor of education leadership in the department of organization & leadership; founding director of the Black Education Research Collective (BERC); and co-director of the Urban Education Leaders Program (UELP), at Teachers College, Columbia University. Horsford examines the problem of racial inequality in K-12 schools and how race is conceptualized and understood by leaders for equity and social justice in the U.S.
Climate Scientist, International Research Institute for Climate and Society
Simon Mason is a climate scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and The Earth Institute whose research focus is seasonal climate forecasting. He works closely with the World Meteorological Organization to promote the definition and adoption of forecasting and verification standards.
Professor, Department of Computer Science
Simha Sethumadhavan specializes in developing practical solutions to cybersecurity and computer architecture challenges. His work has significantly improved the security of widely-used hardware and software products--from mobile phone processors to web browsers benefiting millions of users globally. His contributions to hardware security have been used by standards organizations, and he pioneered a type of hardware-based antivirus that is now used in laptops with Intel processors to protect against ransomware. Sethumadhavan founded Chip Scan Inc., one of the few hardware security companies accredited as a Department of Defense/DMEA trusted supplier that provides cybersecurity for critical infrastructure and weapons systems.
Professor, School of International and Public Affairs
Sharyn O'Halloran is the George Blumenthal Professor of Political Economy and Professor of International and Public Affairs. A political scientist and economist by training, O’Halloran has written extensively on issues related to the political economy of international trade and finance, regulation and institutional reform, economic growth and democratic transitions, and the political representation of minorities.
Professor, School of International and Public Affairs and Columbia Business School
Dr. Shang-Jin Wei is N.T. Wang Professor of Chinese Business and Economy and Professor of Finance and Economics at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and Graduate School of Business, and he is affiliated with the Weatherhead East Asian Institute. Dr. Wei is a noted scholar on international finance, trade, macroeconomics, and China.
Lecturer in Music, Assistant Director, Computer Music Center & Sound Art Program
Seth Cluett is the Assistant Director of the Computer Music Center and Sound Art Program at Columbia, and Artist-in-Residence with Experiments in Art and Technology at Nokia Bell Labs, where he maintains a studio and is active in research on virtual and augmented reality acoustics and multi-sensory communication.
Assistant Professor, Department of Physics
Sebastian Will creates quantum systems from ultracold atoms and molecules in order to perform quantum simulations of strongly interacting matter, and work towards single atom and single molecule control. His research focuses on fundamental questions in many-body quantum physics, quantum simulation, and quantum optics, and contributes to the development of modern quantum technologies.
Associate Professor, Department of History
Sarah Haley, associate professor, has research interests in the history of gender and women, carceral history, Black feminist history and theory, prison abolition, and feminist archival methods.
Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics, School of Nursing
Sarah Rossetti, RN, PhD is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Nursing at Columbia University. Her research is focused on identifying and intervening
on patient risk for harm by applying computational tools to mine and extract value from EHR data and leveraging user-centered design for patient-centered technologies. Dr. Rossetti is an experienced critical care nurse. She was selected as a 2019 recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).Associate Professor, Department of History and the Mailman School of Public Health
Dr. Samuel Kelton Roberts, Jr. is an associate professor of history (department of history) and sociomedical sciences (Mailman School of Public Health). Dr. Roberts writes, teaches, and lectures widely on African-American urban history, especially medicine, public health, and science and technology.
Professor, Department of Computer Science
An expert in computer security, Salvatore Stolfo is considered the leading researcher in applying machine learning to intrusion detection. He is particularly known for his work on detecting zero-day attacks and credential theft. Stolfo has developed several anomaly-detection algorithms and systems addressing some of the most challenging problems in securing computer systems, including printers, VoIP phones, and IoT devices. He is also a co-inventor of the technology Norton uses to detect zero day malware on host computers.
University Professor and Professor of Ecology
Ruth DeFries is a University Professor and a professor of ecology and sustainable development. She is also a co-founding dean emerita of Columbia Climate School. DeFries uses images from satellites and field surveys to examine how the world’s demands for food and other resources are changing land use throughout the tropics. Her research quantifies how these land use changes affect climate, biodiversity and other ecosystem services, as well as human development.
Professor, Columbia Climate School
Robin Bell is a professor of marine geology and geophysics at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. As the Palisades Geophysical Institute Lamont Research Professor, Bell directs research programs in Antarctica and Greenland, and focuses on developing new technologies to monitor our rapidly changing planet.
Professor, Department of Political Science and School of International and Public Affairs
Robert Y. Shapiro is a professor and former chair of the department of political science at Columbia University. He specializes in American politics with research and teaching interests in public opinion, policymaking, political leadership, the mass media, and applications of statistical methods.
Assistant Professor, School of Social Work and Research Scientist, Center on Poverty and Social Policy
Rob Hartley is an assistant professor of social work and is a research scientist at the Center on Poverty and Social Policy. He is an applied micro-economist working in the fields of labor and public economics. His research addresses the role of social policy on the persistence of poverty and dependence, particularly through childhood exposure or labor market outcomes.
Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center
Dr. Rishi Goyal is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine (in Medical Humanities and Ethics and in the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society). He is board-certified in emergency medicine. Goyal is also a co-project lead on Columbia World Project's "Increasing COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence," a project that aims to reduce vaccine hesitancy.
Professor, Columbia Journalism School
Richard R. John is a historian who specializes in the history of business, technology, communications, and American political development. He teaches and advises graduate students in Columbia’s Ph.D. program in communications, and is member of the core faculty of the Columbia history department, where he teaches courses on the history of capitalism and the history of communications.
Senior Research Scholar, Center on Global Energy Policy
Richard Nephew is the author of The Art of Sanctions and an expert on the use of sanctions for deterrence and impact. Nephew most recently served as the deputy special envoy for Iran in the Biden-Harris administration.
Professor, Columbia Law School
Richard Briffault is the Joseph P. Chamberlain Professor of Legislation at Columbia Law School. Since joining the Columbia Law School faculty in 1983, Richard Briffault has combined public and government service with teaching, research, and scholarship. He is the Law School’s authority on state and local government; the news media often turns to him for his expert insight into and analysis of issues central to democracy and the political process such as campaign finance reform, government ethics, gerrymandering, and fair elections.
Rashid Khalidi is the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies in the Department of History. He is editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies, and was president of the Middle East Studies Association, and an advisor to the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid and Washington Arab-Israeli peace negotiations from October 1991 until June 1993.
Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
Rafael Yuste works on deciphering the function of the cerebral cortex, the largest part of the brain in mammals. The cortex is responsible for all higher cognitive functions and is affected in most neurological and mental diseases.
Yuste’s lab has pioneered many optical methods to study the function of the cortex in animals that are now widely used in neuroscience, such as calcium imaging and two-photon microscopy.
Professor, Columbia Climate School
Radley Horton is a Lamont Research Professor at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. His research focuses on climate extremes, tail risks, climate impacts, and adaptation. He serves on numerous national and international task forces and committees, including the Climate Scenarios Task Force in support of the 2018 National Climate Assessment, and frequently appears on national and international television, radio, and in print.
Read Radley Horton's full bio here.
Professor, Department of English and Comparative Literature
Professor Adams specializes in 20th- and 21st-century literatures of the United States and the Americas, disability studies and health humanities, media studies, theories of race, gender, and sexuality, and food studies.
Professor, School of Social Work
Qin Gao is a professor of social policy and social work, the founding director of Columbia University’s China Center for Social Policy, and an affiliated of Weatherhead East Asian Institute. She is also the associate dean for doctoral education at the School of Social Work. Dr. Gao’s research examines the changing nature of the Chinese welfare system and its impact on poverty and inequality; effectiveness of Dibao, China’s primary social assistance program; social protection for rural-to-urban migrants in China and Asian American immigrants; and cross-national comparative social policies and programs.
Professor, Barnard University, Department of History
Premilla Nadasen is a professor of history at Barnard University and is affiliated with the American Studies and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies programs. She teaches, researches, and writes about race, gender, social policy, and organizing.
Global Research Scholar, Center on Global Energy Policy
Pierre Noël's research interests sit at the intersections between international energy markets and public policy choices. He has worked on energy security policy in Europe, with special reference to Russia-dependent central and eastern European countries. He specialized in changing natural gas market structures and how they impacted policy choices.
Senior Research Scholar/Adjunct Professor, School of International and Public Affairs
Peter Clement is a senior research scholar/adjunct professor at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies in the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). He teaches courses on Contemporary Russian Security Policy and Intelligence and US Foreign Policy. Clement comes to SIPA from CIA, where he served as Deputy Assistant Director of CIA for Europe and Eurasia since 2015.
Lecturer in Law, Columbia Law School and Executive Director, Center for Japanese Legal Studies
Nobuhisa Ishizuka is the executive director of the Center for Japanese Legal Studies at Columbia Law School, which has been an intellectual hub between the U.S. and Japan for over 30 years. He oversees the Center's programming and strategy, and promotes scholarly exchanges between faculty and practitioners in the field.
Naomi Weinberger’s primary academic interests are in international security studies, with expertise in the Middle East. Her publications include Syrian Intervention in Lebanon (Oxford University Press) and many articles on global peace operations and conflict resolution. She is currently pursuing research on Palestinian security sector reform and on the regional implications of the Syrian uprising.
University Professor and Professor, School of Social Work
Nabila El-Bassel is a University Professor and the Willma and Albert Musher Professor of Social Work. She is director of the Social Intervention Group, which was established in 1990 as a multi-disciplinary center focused on developing and testing prevention and intervention approaches for HIV, drug use, and gender–based violence, and disseminating them to local, national, and global communities.
Professor, Teachers College
Michelle Georgia Knight-Manuel is Professor of Education and Executive Editor of the Teachers College Record at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her work focuses on equity in the areas of urban education, culturally relevant teacher education, and qualitative research methodologies. Her interests bridge the intersections of formal/informal education in youth studies (college readiness and access, immigrant education, and civic engagement), feminist theories (black, multicultural and critical race feminisms), and culturally-grounded research methodologies involving youth and community collaborations.
Read Michelle Georgia Knight-Manuel's full bio here.
Professor, Department of History
Michael Witgen is a professor in the department of history and is affiliated with the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. He specializes in Indigenous and Early North American history, comparative borderlands, and the history of the early American Republic. Witgen is a citizen of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe.
Professor, Teachers College
Michael Rebell is Professor of Law and Educational Practice and Executive Director, Center for Educational Equity (CEE), at Teachers College, Columbia University. Rebell is an educational law scholar specializing in equity in education, the role of courts in institutional reform litigations, civic education, and comprehensive educational opportunity for underserved students.
Professor, School of International and Public Affairs
Michael Nutter is the David N. Dinkins Professor of Professional Practice in Urban and Public Affairs. Professor Nutter focuses on cities, ethical and transparent government, politics, development of effective national urban policy. He was the 98th Mayor of Philadelphia serving from 2008-2016.
Professor, Columbia Law School
Michael Graetz is the Columbia Alumni Professor of Tax Law. A leading expert on national and international tax law, Michael J. Graetz joined the faculty in 2009, after 25 years at Yale Law School, where he is a professor of law emeritus and a professorial lecturer. He has written on a wide range of tax, international taxation, health policy, and social insurance issues.
Professor, Columbia Law School and Founder and Director, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Michael Gerrard is the Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia Law School. The founder and faculty director of the groundbreaking Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and one of the foremost environmental lawyers in the nation, he is an advocate, litigator, teacher, and scholar who has pioneered cutting-edge legal tools and strategies for addressing climate change. He writes and teaches courses on environmental law, climate change law, and energy regulation. He was the chair of the faculty of Columbia University’s renowned Earth Institute from 2015 to 2018.
Executive Director, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
As Executive Director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Michael Burger leads a dynamic team that is at the forefront of domestic and international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote climate change adaptation through pollution control, resource management, land use planning and green finance.
Assistant Professor, Mailman School of Public Health
Merlin Chowkwanyun is the Donald H. Gemson Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences in Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health. His work centers on the history of community health; environmental health regulation; racial inequality; and social movement/activism around health.
Read Merlin Chowkwanyun's full bio here.
Associate Professor, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
Melissa Stockwell is an associate professor of Pediatrics and Population and Family Health. Dr. Stockwell is Chief of the Division of Child and Adolescent Health and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons) and Population and Family Health (Mailman School of Public Health). Her research, which concentrates on underserved children and adolescents, focuses on translational interventions to improve vaccinations with an emphasis on health technology and health literacy.
Professor, Department of Music
Professor Kozak's research centers on the relationship between music, cognition, and the body.
Professor, Department of Political Science and School of International and Public Affairs
Maria Victoria Murillo holds a joint appointment with the department of political science and the School of International and Public Affairs and is currently the director of the Institute for Latin American Studies. Murillo's research on distributive politics in Latin America has covered labor politics and labor regulations, public utility reform, education reform, agricultural policies and economic policy.
Professor, Department of History
Mae M. Ngai, Lung Family Professor of Asian American Studies and Professor of History, is a U.S. legal and political historian interested in questions of immigration, citizenship, and nationalism.
Professor, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP) and the African American and African Diaspora Studies department
Mabel O. Wilson (’91 M.Arch) is the Nancy and George Rupp Professor of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation , a Professor in African American and African Diasporic Studies, and the Director of the Institute for Research in African American Studies (IRAAS) at Columbia University. At GSAPP she co-directs the Global Africa Lab. She is trained in Architecture and American Studies, two fields that inform her scholarship, curatorial projects, art works and design projects.
Dean of the Mailman School of Public Health
Linda P. Fried, MD, MPH, Dean of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health since 2008, is a leader in the fields of epidemiology and geriatric medicine. She additionally serves as the Director of the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center.
Adjunct Research Scholar, School of International and Public Affairs
Lincoln Mitchell is an adjunct research scholar in the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies and an adjunct associate professor of political science. He is also a political analyst, pundit and writer based in New York City and San Francisco. Lincoln works on democracy and governance related issues in the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Africa and Asia and writes and speaks on U.S. politics as well.
Associate Professor, Columbia Law School
Lev Menand is an associate professor at Columbia Law School and recent author of Columbia Global Report's The Fed Unbound: Central Banking in a Time of Crisis. His research focuses on money and banking, central banking, financial regulation, administrative law, separation of powers, corporate governance, and the history of economic thought.
Professor, Columbia Business School
Laura Veldkamp is the Cooperman Professor of Finance and Economics at Columbia Business School. Her research focuses on how individuals, investors, and firms get their information, how that information affects the decisions they make, and how those decisions affect the macroeconomy and asset prices. Her recent work examines the data economy and the value of data as an asset.
Editor in Chief, Columbia Journalism Review
Kyle Pope is the editor in chief and publisher of the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR). He previously has worked as an editor at Condé Nast, The Wall Street Journal, and the New York Observer, and in 2017 testified before Congress about threats to the press.
Professor, Department of Political Science at Barnard
Kimberly Marten is a Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, and a faculty member of Columbia's Harriman Institute for Russian and East-Central European Studies, and Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies. She specializes in international relations and international security, with a keen interest in Russia.
Lecturer, Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies
Khatchig Mouradian teaches courses on Urban Space and Conflict in the Middle East; War, Genocide, and Aftermath; Apologies and Non-Apologies; Literature of the Great War in the Middle East; and A Social History of Concentration Camps.
Professor, Department of Music and the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies
Professor Fellezs focuses on ethnomusicology, and also has a joint appointment in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies.
Professor, Department of Political Science and School of International and Public Affairs
Kenneth Prewitt is the Carnegie Professor of Public Affairs. Prewitt's professional career also includes: director of the United States Census Bureau, director of the National Opinion Research Center, president of the Social Science Research Council, and senior vice president of the Rockefeller Foundation.
Associate Professor, School of Nursing
Kellie Bryant is an associate professor of nursing and executive director of the Simulation Center at the School of Nursing. Her focus areas are global pandemic response, nursing on the frontlines, nursing training and redeployment for treating COVID patients, diversity in nursing and naloxone training.
Professor, Mailman School of Public Health
Kathleen J. Sikkema, Ph.D., is the Stephen Smith Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health. She conducts community based intervention research focused on HIV prevention and mental health treatment in the U.S. and in low and middle income countries. She is a clinical psychologist who specializes in health and community psychology.
Professor, Columbia Law School
Katherine M. Franke is the James L. Dohr Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, where she also directs the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law and is the faculty director of the Law, Rights, and Religion Project. She is a member of the Executive Committee for the Institute for Research on Women, Gender and Sexuality, and the Center for Palestine Studies.
Professor, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation
Kate Orff is a professor and director of the Urban Design Program. As a professor at Columbia and as a practicing professional, she has advanced concepts of sustainable planning and urban design at multiple scales.
Professor, Department of Computer Science
Junfeng Yang is a professor of computer science and co-director of the Software Systems Lab, where he creates reliable, secure, and fast software systems. His work on vulnerability detection has resulted in vulnerability patches to critical systems such as the Linux kernel, benefiting billions of users. While his research on testing and verifying machine learning systems has been adopted by some of the largest technology companies, such as Google. Yang co-founded a mobile app testing startup called NimbleDroid which provides software tools to auto-test Android apps for critical issues. It was highly praised by developers at New York Times, Pinterest, and Flipkart and integrated into the workflows of many companies. Yang's work has been featured in Scientific American, The Atlantic, The Register, and Communications of ACM.
Associate Professor, Teachers College
Judith Scott-Clayton is Associate Professor of Economics and Education; Senior Research Scholar, Community College Research Center (CCRC); and Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), at Teachers College, Columbia University. She examines the intersection of labor economics and higher education, with a focus on financial aid, community colleges, and student loans.
Senior Research Scholar, Center on Global Energy Policy
Jonathan Elkind came to the Center after a long and distinguished career devoted to energy and environment policy in the private and public sectors. Early in his career, Elkind focused on energy, environment, and economic issues in the post-Soviet nations in a variety of posts with the Joint Global Change Research Institute, the U.S. National Security Council, Office of the Vice President of the United States, the Department of Energy, and the Council on Environmental Quality.
Director, International Research Institute for Climate and Society
John Furlow is the director of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society. He previously led the Climate Change Adaptation Program in USAID’s climate change office. He now helps researchers apply their research and expertise to decision making in public health, agriculture, infrastructure planning, and other vital sectors.
Associate Professor, Department of Economics
La'O is an associate professor in the department of economics at Columbia University, a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and a research fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). Her research focuses on the effects of informational frictions on business cycles and the macroeconomic implications of micro distortions in production networks.
Professor, Mailman School of Public Health
Jeffrey Shaman is a professor of Environmental Health Sciences (in the International Research Institute for Climate and Society/Earth Institute) and the director of the Climate and Health Program. Professor Shaman focuses on climate, atmospheric science and hydrology, as well as biology, and studies the environmental determinants of infectious disease transmission and infectious disease forecast.
Director, National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia Climate School
Jeffrey Schlegelmilch is the director for the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia Climate School. He oversees the operations and strategic planning for the center and projects related to the practice and policy of disaster preparedness. His areas of expertise includes public health preparedness, community resilience, and the integration of private and public sector capabilities.
Professor, Department of Political Science
Jeffrey Lax is a professor of political science and the department's deputy chair. He studies American politics, focusing on judicial politics, with projects on bargaining in the Supreme Court, legal doctrine on collegial courts, compliance in the judicial hierarchy, the influence of law on Supreme Court decision-making, and the impact of court decisions.
Professor, Teachers College
Jeffrey Henig is Professor of Political Science and Education, and Director of the Politics & Education Program, in the Department of Education Policy and Social Analysis at Teachers College, Columbia University. His expertise and interests include: privatization and school choice; race and urban politics; the politics of urban education reform; the politics of education research; local school boards; and philanthropic contributions to educational institutions and programs.
Professor, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Columbia Climate School
Professor Jason E. Smerdon is a Lamont Research Professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. He also holds appointments at Columbia University as an Earth Institute Faculty Member and as Co-Director of the Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development. He teaches courses on climate, environmental change and sustainable development to undergraduate and graduate students.
Founding Director, Center on Global Energy Policy and Professor, School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA)
Jason Bordoff is the founding director of the Center on Global Energy Policy and a professor of professional practice in international and public affairs at SIPA. Bordoff's research and policy interests lie at the intersection of economics, energy, environment, and national security. He is a frequent commentator on TV and radio, including NPR, Bloomberg, CNBC and BBC, has appeared on the Colbert Report, and has published in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and other leading news outlets.
Executive Director, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University
Jameel Jaffer is the Executive Director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Under his leadership, the Institute has filed precedent-setting litigation, undertaken major interdisciplinary research initiatives, and become an influential voice in debates about the freedoms of speech and the press in the digital age.
Read Jameel Jaffer's full bio here.
Professor, Department of Mathematics
Ivan Corwin is a mathematician who works in probability theory, random matrix theory and mathematical aspects of statistical physics. His work focuses on understanding how universal phenomena arise in large, complex and random systems such as traffic flow, interface growth, diffusions, and data sets.
Associate Professor, Teachers College
Ioana Literat is Associate Professor of Communication, Media, and Learning Technologies Design at Teachers College, Columbia University, and has expertise in media literacy, social media, youth online political expression and civic education. Studying the intersection of civic and creative practices in online spaces, she is particularly interested in how social media and online communities facilitate (or sometimes constrain) young people’s political voice, activism and civic participation.
Professor, Engineering and Data Science
Hod Lipson is the James and Sally Scapa Professor of Innovation in the department of mechanical engineering and is affiliated with the Data Science Institute. Lipson works in the areas of artificial intelligence and robotics. He and his students love designing and building robots that do what you’d least expect robots to do: Self replicate, self-reflect, ask questions, and even be creative. Hod's research asks questions such as: Can robots ultimately design and make other robots? Can machines be curious and creative? Will robots ever be truly self-aware? Answers to these questions can help illuminate life’s big mysteries.
Hod directs the Creative Machines Lab, which pioneers new ways to make machines that create, and machines that are creative.
Helen Young CUPHSONAA Professor of Nursing, School of Nursing
Dr. Alexander is an internationally recognized nursing informaticist and clinical expert with more than 25 years of research and clinical practice leadership.
Professor, Department of Political Science
Gregory J. Wawro is a professor of political science. Wawro specializes in American politics (including Congress, elections, campaign finance, judicial politics, and political economy) and political methodology.
Professor, Columbia Law School
Gillian Metzger is the Harlan Fiske Stone Professor of Constitutional Law. Metzger’s recent work covers topics ranging from constitutional attacks on the administrative state to administrative constitutionalism and the role of administrative agencies in a polarized world.
Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science and Special Research Scholar, Weatherhead East Asian Institute
Gerald L. Curtis is Burgess Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Columbia University, former Director of Weatherhead East Asian Institute, and Distinguished Research Fellow at the Tokyo Foundation.
Professor, Department of Economics
Gautam Gowrisankaran is a professor of economics whose research interests include industrial organization, health economics, environmental economics, and applied econometrics. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a research fellow of the Centre for Economic and Policy Research, and professeur afilié at HEC Montréal.
Professor, Department of Political Science
Fredrick C. Harris is a professor of political science. He also serves as Director of the Center on African American Politics and Society. Professor Harris’s research interests are primarily in American politics with a focus on race and politics, political participation, social movements, religion and politics, political development, and African American politics.
Professor, Department of Political Science and School of International and Public Affairs
Ester R. Fuchs is a Professor of International and Public Affairs and Political Science and is the Director of the Urban and Social Policy Program at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. Professor Fuchs is an expert in urban politics and policy; American politics; and American parties and elections. She consults for governments, NGOs and businesses. She is a frequent political commentator in print, broadcast and new media and lectures internationally.
Professor, Columbia Law School
Elora Mukherjee is the Jerome L. Greene Clinical Professor of Law. A globally recognized advocate, practitioner, and voice for immigrants, asylum seekers, and unaccompanied migrant children, she is also the director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School.
Professor, Teachers College
Ellen Meier is Professor of Computing and Educational Practice in the Communication, Media, & Learning Technologies Design Program; Director of the Center for Technology and School Change (CTSC); and Coordinator of the Educational Technology Specialist Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She works with education leaders and schools on creating effective learning environments using technology, and researches the pedagogical shifts needed to create innovative learning environments in which technology can help transform instruction.
Professor, Department of History
Elizabeth Blackmar, Mary and David Boies Professor of American History, specializes in social history of American property relations and the built environment.
Lecturer, Department of Political Science and School of International and Public Affairs
Elise Giuliano is a lecturer in the political science department and director of graduate studies of the MA program at The Harriman Institute. Her research focuses on the politics of ethnic identity, especially the question of how ethnicity impacts popular attitudes and political mobilization. Her award-winning book, Constructing Grievance: Ethnic Nationalism in Russia’s Republics (Cornell University Press, 2011), examines minority support for nationalist separatism in Russia’s ethnic republics.
Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics
Elena Giorgi is an assistant professor of mathematics. Her research focuses on the stability of black holes as solutions to the Einstein equation, with an emphasis on the interaction between gravitational and electromagnetic radiation.
Professor, Columbia Law School
Edward R. Morrison is the Charles Evans Gerber Professor of Law. Morrison’s scholarship has addressed corporate reorganization, consumer bankruptcy, the regulation of systemic market risk, and foreclosure and mortgage modification. His recent work studies patterns in inter-creditor agreements, valuation disputes in corporate bankruptcies, racial disparities in Chapter 13 bankruptcy filings, and the relationship between financial distress and mortality rates.
Read Edward Morrison's full bio here.
Adjunct Professor, School of International and Public Affairs, and Fellow, Center on Global Energy Policy
Edward Fishman’s career spans business, public policy, and technology. He is currently a director at Via, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, and an adjunct fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). His research focuses on sanctions and the evolving ways states use economic power to advance their foreign policy interests. Fishman was the Russia and Europe lead in the State Department’s Office of Economic Sanctions Policy and Implementation, where he played a central role in designing and negotiating international sanctions in response to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.
Professor, Department of Political Science
Donald Green is the Burgess Professor of Political Science. Professor Green's research interests span a wide array of topics: voting behavior, partisanship, campaign finance, hate crime, and research methods. Much of his current work uses field experimentation to study the ways in which political campaigns mobilize and persuade voters. Green is advising Connect the Vote, an organization that aims to leverage preexisting social networks to promote voter registration and turnout.
Professor, Department of Physics
Dimitri Basov works on nano-optics, developing new methods for applying strong radiation fields to materials and measuring their effects—all on the smallest length scales.
His current research focus is on van der Waals materials like graphene and transition metal dicalcogenide, two-dimensional compounds as thin as a single layer of atoms that exhibit remarkable electronic properties. These materials could provide new means to convert waste heat into usable energy, build accurate sensors, transmit power over long distances, and serve as a basis for new kinds of quantum and classical computers.
Associate Professor, Teachers College
Detra Price-Dennis is associate professor of education in the Communication, Media, & Learning Technologies Design Program, and Co-Director of the Reimagining Education Online Advanced Certificate Program, at Teachers College, Columbia University. She specializes in the sociopolitical and sociocultural aspects of literacy learning in early and middle childhood education, digital literacies, literacy teacher education, and critical perspectives on children’s and young adult literature.
Associate Professor, Department of English and Comparative Literature
Dennis Tenen's research happens at the intersection of people, texts, and technology. He is the co-project lead for Columbia World Project's "Increasing COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence," a project that aims to reduce vaccine hesitancy.
Professor, Department of Sociology
David Stark is Arthur Lehman Professor of Sociology at Columbia University where he directs the Center on Organizational Innovation. He is also Professor of Social Science at the University of Warwick. His is also Stark uses a variety of methods to study problems of valuation, innovation, and observation.
Assistant Professor, Department of Astronomy
David Kipping studies moons and planets beyond our solar system, and leads the Cool Worlds Lab at Columbia.
His research interests include the study and characterization of transiting exoplanets, the development of novel detection and characterization techniques, exoplanet atmospheres, Bayesian inference, population statistics, and understanding stellar hostsProfessor, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
David Ho, the Clyde ’56 and Helen Wu Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, was at the forefront of AIDS research. He is currently leading a team that is doing research on a vaccine to fight COVID-19.
Professor, Department of Economics and Columbia Business School
David E. Weinstein is the Carl S. Shoup Professor of the Japanese Economy at Columbia University. He is also the director of the Center on Japanese Economy and Business. His teaching and research interests include international economics, corporate finance, and the Japanese economy.
Assistant Professor, Columbia University Irving Medical Center
Craig Spencer is an assistant professor of Emergency Medicine and Population and Family Health at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Dr. Spencer is also the Director of Global Health in Emergency Medicine.
Associate Professor, School of Social Work
Associate Professor Courtney D. Cogburn employs a trans-disciplinary approach to examining the role of racism in the production of racial inequalities in health. She has focused on examining the effects of cultural racism in the media on acute physiological, psychological, and behavioral stress responses as well as associations between chronic psychosocial stress exposure and Black/White disparities in cardiovascular health and disease.
Professor, Department of Physics
Cory Dean works with a unique class of two-dimensional materials called van der Waals heterostructure materials—very thin materials made of single atomic layers stacked and held together by weak forces. His techniques have sparked a completely new field of study known as “twistronics.” His work has enabled the exploration of new areas in quantum physics, including superconductivity, topology, and magnetism.
Professor, Department of History
Christopher Brown is a historian of Britain and the British empire, principally in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with special emphasis on the comparative history of slavery and abolition, and with secondary interests in the Atlantic Slave Trade and the Age of Revolutions.
Chair and Professor, Department of Music
Professor Washburne is the founder of Columbia’s Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program. He has published numerous articles on jazz, Latin jazz, and salsa.
Professor Chuck Freilich, a former deputy national security adviser in Israel and long-time senior fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center, has taught political science at Harvard, Columbia, NYU and Tel Aviv University. He has published numerous academic articles and over 150 op-eds, and appears frequently on US, Israeli and international TV and radio stations.
Professor and Chair, Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health
Dr. Branas has conducted research that extends from urban and rural areas in the U.S. to communities across the globe, incorporating place-based interventions and human geography.
Professor, Columbia Law School
Carol Sanger is the Barbara Aronstein Black Professor of Law. An award-winning teacher and influential scholar of reproductive rights, Sanger writes and teaches courses on contracts, family law, the legal profession, and law and gender. Her most recent book, About Abortion: Terminating Pregnancy in the 21st Century, addresses the regulation of abortion and maternal conduct, surrogacy, and the law’s relation to culture.
Professor Emerita, Department of History
Carol Gluck, George Sansom Professor Emerita of History, specializes in modern Japan, from the late 19th century to the present; international relations; World War II; history-writing; and public memory in Asia and the West.
Professor, Department of Sociology
Bruce Western is the Bryce Professor of Sociology and Social Justice and director of the Justice Lab at Columbia University. His research has examined the causes, scope, and consequences of the historic growth in U.S. prison populations.
Professor, Department of Music and Director Emeritus, Computer Music Center
Professor Garton's research focuses on the modeling and enhancement of acoustic spaces, as well as the modeling of human musical performance on various virtual "instruments". He is also the primary developer (with Dave Topper) of RTcmix, a real-time music synthesis/signal-processing language.
Professor, Columbia Law School and Department of Political Science
Bernard E. Harcourt is the Isidore and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science at Columbia Law School. He is a distinguished contemporary critical theorist, justice advocate, and prolific writer and editor. In his books, articles, and teaching, his scholarship focuses on social and critical theory with a particular interest in punishment and surveillance.
Read Bernard E. Harcourt's full bio here.
Professor, Columbia Law School
Benjamin L. Liebman leads Columbia Law School’s Hong Yen Chang Center for Chinese Legal Studies, the first institution of its kind at a U.S. law school. Widely known as a preeminent scholar of contemporary Chinese law, Liebman studies Chinese court judgments, the roles of artificial intelligence and big data in the Chinese legal system, Chinese tort law, Chinese criminal procedure, and the evolution of China’s courts.
Director, Technology, Media, and Communications at the School of International and Public Affairs
Anya Schiffrin is the director of the Technology, Media, and Communications at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. She focuses on media, development, innovation, media in Africa and the extractive sector.
Global Research Scholar, Center on Global Energy Policy and School of International and Public Affairs
Anne-Sophie Corbeau's research focuses on hydrogen and natural gas. Anne-Sophie has over 20 years of experience in the energy industry and is a recognized expert on natural gas
Professor, Department of Political Science
Andrew J. Nathan is Class of 1919 Professor of Political Science, and he is affiliated with the Weatherhead East Asian Institute. His teaching and research interests include Chinese politics and foreign policy, the comparative study of political participation and political culture, and human rights.
Professor, Statistics and Political Science and Director, Applied Statistics Center
Andrew Gelman is Higgins Professor of Statistics, professor of political science and director of the Applied Statistics Center at Columbia University. Recently, he has teamed with The Economist to create a model to predict the presidential election.
Assistant Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology at CUIMC
Ana Cepin, MD, is the Director of Community Women's Health for the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at CUMC. Dr. Cepin is a board certified obstetrician-gynecologist who joined the Columbia faculty in 2003.
Dr. Cepin can conduct interviews in Spanish.
Associate Professor, Teachers College
Amra Sabic-El-Rayess is Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Education Policy and Social Analysis, and Project Director at the Center for Benefit-Cost Studies in Education, at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is an affiliated faculty member at the Harriman Institute for Russian, Eurasian and Eastern European Studies. Sabic-El-Rayess is an interdisciplinary scholar who leverages the fields of economics, sociology, and political science to address questions of radicalization, discrimination, Islamophobia, social mobility, corruption, social transformations, and exclusion of women.
Professor, Department of Political Science at Barnard and Director of the Harriman Institute
Alexander Cooley is the Claire Tow Professor of Political Science at Barnard College and Director of Columbia University's Harriman Institute. His research examines how external actors—emerging powers, international organizations, multinational companies, NGOs, and Western enablers of grand corruption—have influenced the development, governance, and sovereignty of the former Soviet states, with a focus on Central Asia and the Caucasus.
Founding Dean, Columbia Climate School and Director, Earth Institute
Alex N. Halliday is the founding dean of the Columbia Climate School and the director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute. He joined the Earth Institute in April 2018, after spending more than a decade at the University of Oxford, during which time he was dean of science and engineering.
Fellow, Center on Global Energy Policy and School of International and Public Affairs
Aimee Barnes is a non-resident fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy. She has over 15 years of experience in climate, energy and sustainability, spanning the state, federal and international levels, and the public, private, and non-profit sectors.
Professor, Department of History
Adam Tooze is the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History in Columbia's department of history. He teaches and researches widely in the fields of twentieth-century and contemporary history. From a start in modern German history with a special focus on the history of economics and economic history his interests have widened to take in a range of themes in political, intellectual, and military history, across a canvass stretching from Europe across the Atlantic.
Professor, Department of Engineering
Adam Sobel is a professor of applied physics and applied mathematics and of earth and environmental sciences. He studies weather and climate, with a focus on extreme weather events and a particular interest in the tropics. Phenomena include tropical cyclones, intra-seasonal variability, precipitation, severe convection and climate change.
Professor, Teachers College
Aaron Pallas is Arthur I. Gates Professor of Sociology and Education and Chair of the Department of Education Policy and Social Analysis at Teachers College, Columbia University. Pallas uses a variety of research tools to inform the public about the relevance and usability of educational research for policy and practice. He educates stakeholders—including representatives of the media—about the complexities and unexpected consequences of accountability and resource distribution policies in public schools.