Name: Caleb O’Brien

Degree: Ph.D. in Forestry from the College of Natural Resources and Environment

Hometown: Columbia, MO

Research Summary: I study how people collectively learn, plan, and act in response to the impacts of climate change. My research is focused on place-based climate adaptation workshops, which are an increasingly common approach to guiding multi-stakeholder teams through the process of understanding and responding to current and future changes impacting the places we love. By understanding what works (and what doesn't) in these contexts, I hope to distill lessons that could help foster collaborative problem solving to address the complex challenges facing society today. 

VT Education Experience: In addition to the expertise and collegiality of my peers and instructors at Virginia Tech, I really valued my experience as a member of the Global Change Center's Interfaces of Global Change program. It's hard to overstate the impact the program had on my experience at VT: It helped me become a better communicator, broadened my thinking immensely, and exposed me to an inspiring group of collaborators, mentors, and friends.

Research Inspiration and Rewards: I wanted to better understand how society and the environment shape--and are shaped by--each other. In my view, all environmental problems are people problems, and we ignore the human dimension at our peril. My research is inspired by fear and love in equal measure, plus a pragmatic desire to be of service.