James Buizer

James (Jim) Buizer is professor of climate adaptation in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment and director of the Climate Adaptation and International Development Program in the Institute of the Environment at the University of Arizona. His research focuses on mechanisms to incorporate scientifically based findings of projected impacts of climate variability and change into development decisions. Jim is co-principal investigator and codirector of the five-year (2013-2018) NOAA and USAID funded project, Integrating Climate Information and Decision Processes for Regional Climate Resilience.

From 2003-2011 Jim served as senior policy advisor to the president at Arizona State University, where he led the design and establishment of the Global Institute of Sustainability and its degree-granting school. Prior to ASU, Jim was director of the Climate and Societal Interactions Division at NOAA in Washington, D.C., where he was responsible for designing and leading interdisciplinary research and applications programs positioned at the climate and societal interface. These included the Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments Program, the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, and the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research, among others.

Jim serves on the UA President’s Advisory Council on Environmental Sustainability. Externally, he serves as chairman of the board of directors at the National Council for Science and the Environment, vice chairman of the board of directors at Second Nature, Inc., and chairman of the senior advisoryboard at the Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System for Africa and Asia. He also serves on the board on global strategies of the American Meteorological Society, on the board of directors of the Foundation for Earth Science, the advisory board for Planet Forward at George Washington University, and as senior sustainability scientist at the ASU Global Institute of Sustainability. His degrees are in oceanography and marine policy from the University of Washington.