Samuel Colin Pickard

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Biography

I have been a researcher/practitioner in the Earth Systems Services (ESS) Knowledge Integration Team (KIT) at BSC since 2022, following nearly a decade of climate-related research and advocacy in the international development sector (I remain a Research Associate with ODI). Most of my current work sits at the interface between real-world decisionmaking and climate science, and aims to convene and collaborate with diverse practitioners, advocates, and researchers working on climate-informed interventions.
We focus on the generation of actionable climate information and trying to better understand how science can be translated into useful and useable knowledge, the roles and power held by different climate services actors, and how these dynamics impact the identification of vulnerability and the realisation of climate justice.
I hold masters degrees in engineering, climate technology, and political ecology, and a PhD in engineering and innovation systems. A habitual disciplinary nomad, I am always looking for new collaborations with technologists, economists, engineers, climate scientists, sociologists (and more), and - particularly - between research and the real world.
Key themes I'm currently working on: (urban) climate vulnerability (Impetus4Change), citizen engagement and co-production for climate solutions (ÀGORA), understanding power in the climate services community.

Education

2022 - Universidad Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain - MA (Hons) Political ecology, degrowth and environmental justice.

2014 - University of Leeds, UK - Integrated PhD–MSc (Hons) in Low Carbon Technologies

2008 - The University of Manchester (formerly UMIST), UK - MEng (Hons) Chemical Engineering with Chemistry