Bob Kopp

Robert Kopp is a climate and sea-level scientist and professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Rutgers University. Kopp holds a doctorate in geobiology from Caltech, where his research addressed fossil magnetotactic bacteria and the long-term co-evolution of life and climate. Before joining Rutgers, he served as an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow in the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Policy and International Affairs and as a postdoctoral research fellow in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy at Princeton University. At the Department of Energy, Kopp contributed to the introduction of the social cost of carbon in governmental decision-making and participated in the Super-Efficient Equipment and Appliance Initiative.

Kopp's research encompasses past and projected sea-level change, the interactions between physical climate change and the economy, the application of climate risk information in decision-making, and the role of higher education in climate risk management. He examines geological records and tide gauge data to analyze sea-level changes and is a director of the Climate Impact Lab, a collaboration focused on using data science to assess the economic risks of climate change. Kopp also serves as co-lead for engagement and applications for the NASA Sea-Level Change Team. His work has informed policy through participation in sea-level rise expert groups for New Jersey, Maryland, California, Boston, and New York.

Kopp directs the Megalopolitan Coastal Transformation Hub, a National Science Foundation-funded consortium led by Rutgers University, which supports multidecadal planning for climate risk management in the Philadelphia–New York City–New Jersey region. He is the founding director of the Coastal Climate Risk and Resilience initiative at Rutgers, a program that connects graduate students with coastal stakeholders to address climate change challenges. Kopp served as lead scientist for the technical report underlying the Risky Business project and is a co-author of "Economic Risks of Climate Change: An American Prospectus."

Kopp is a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report and co-chairs the National Academy of Sciences Roundtable on Macroeconomics and Climate-related Risks and Opportunities. He has served on the National Academy of Sciences Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate. His publications include more than 145 scientific papers and articles in outlets such as the New York Times, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, and The Conversation. Kopp is a Rutgers-New Brunswick Chancellor's Scholar, a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a past Leopold Leadership Fellow. He has received the American Geophysical Union's James B. Macelwane and William Gilbert Medals and the International Union for Quaternary Research Sir Nicholas Shackleton Medal. Kopp's career spans geobiology, paleoclimate, sea-level science, and climate economics, contributing to research and policy on climate risk and coastal resilience.