Douglas MacMartin | Cornell Engineering

Biography

Douglas MacMartin is an Associate Professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University. His research focuses on Sunlight Reflection Methods (SRM, also known as climate engineering, solar geoengineering, or climate intervention), with the aim of helping to develop the knowledge base necessary to support informed future societal decisions in this challenging and controversial field. He has published extensively on the subject, and in addition to public and academic presentations has provided briefings to the UN Environment Program and testimony to the US Congress, and was a member of the US National Academies panel that made recommendations on both research and governance in March 2021. He received his Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT in 1992; previous positions include United Technologies Research Center (1994-2000) and the California Institute of Technology (2000-2015). His research is funded by NSF and by the Cornell Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future.

Research Interests

Dr. MacMartin works at the interface between engineering feedback analysis and climate dynamics, using tools from engineering dynamics and control to solve critical questions in climate science. Primary focus is on developing the knowledge needed to support informed decisions about solar geoengineering; mainly with stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI). Interests also include dynamics and feedback analysis of the climate more generally. Member of the systems engineering team for the Thirty Meter Telescope, involved in control design and dynamic performance analysis. Previous research areas include vibration, noise, and flow control.

Space Science and Engineering
Energy and the Environment

Select Publications

MacMartin, D.G., D. Visioni, B. Kravitz, J. Richter, T. Felgenhauer, W.R. Lee, D.R. Morrow, E.A. Parson, and M. Sugiyama, “Scenarios for modeling solar radiation modification”, Proc. National Academy of Sciences, 119(3):e202230119, 2022.
Lee, W.R., D.G. MacMartin, D. Visioni, B. Kravitz, Y. Chen, J.C. Moore, G. Leguy, D.M. Lawrence and D.A. Bailey, “High-latitude stratospheric aerosol injection to preserve the Arctic”, Earth’s Future, 11, e2022EF003052, 2023.
Zhang, Y., D. G. MacMartin, D. Visioni, and B. Kravitz, “How large is the design space for stratospheric aerosol geoengineering?” Earth System Dynamics, 13, 201–217, 2022.
Kravitz, B., and D. G. MacMartin, “Uncertainty and the basis for confidence in solar geoengineering research”, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, 1, 64-75 (2020).
MacMartin, D.G., and B. Kravitz, “The engineering of climate engineering”, Annual Reviews of Control, Robotics, and Autonomous Systems, 2:445-67, 2019.

Douglas MacMartin's Google Scholar

Select Awards and Honors

Chair of 2022 Gordon Research Conference on Climate Engineering 2022
National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine Committee member, “Developing a Research Agenda and Research Governance Approaches for Climate Intervention Strategies that Reflect Sunlight to Cool Earth” 2019-2021
Faculty Fellow, Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, Cornell University 2016
AACC O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper, Applications, American Control Conference 2011
Outstanding Achievement Awards for technical contributions in helicopter cabin active noise control for laboratory demonstration and successful flight test, UTRC 1994

Education

B.A.Sc., Engineering Science, University of Toronto 1987
S.M., Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1990
Ph.D., Controls and Minor Structural Dynamics, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1992

In the News

Engineer to model sunshine deflection for cooling planet

Douglas MacMartin will lead a team from the Cornell Climate Engineering group to model the effects of introducing reflective aerosols into the stratosphere, which could reduce Earth's temperature and limit the impact of climate change.