Laurel Larsen

Dr. Laurel Larsen is an Associate Professor at UC Berkeley with appointments in the Departments of Geography and Civil and Environmental Engineering and a Senior Fellow at the Berkeley Institute for Data Science. For 2020-2024, she is serving a term as the Delta Lead Scientist, a US Geological Survey position housed within the Delta Stewardship Council in Sacramento, CA. The Delta Science Program, which Dr. Larsen leads, is tasked with the mission of providing the best possible unbiased scientific information for management of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta for the “coequal goals” of ensuring a reliable water supply while protecting, enhancing, and restoring Delta ecosystems. Dr. Larsen also leads the Environmental Systems Dynamics Laboratory at Berkeley, which is tackling challenges of streamflow forecasting and teasing out understanding of how physics, biology, and human systems interact to influence conservation and restoration objectives. Her research has focused on the Everglades, Chesapeake Bay, and coastal Louisiana, as well as California ecosystems. Dr. Larsen has a bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis, with dual majors in Systems Science and Mathematics and Environmental Studies, a master’s degree from Washington University in Earth and Planetary Sciences, and a PhD from the University of Colorado Boulder in Civil and Environmental Engineering.