My interests and activities are broad, but all revolve around the theme of making the world (universe(s)?) a better place. I conduct research that combines science, engineering, and ethics to assess what, given present circumstances and particular ethical frameworks, might be the best thing(s) for us to be doing. I also develop teaching materials and approaches to help others in their efforts.
I am currently a PhD candidate in Pennsylvania State University's Geography Department and Rock Ethics Institute. My dissertation research, with advisor Bill Easterling, is on discounting, ethics, and climate change assessment. I also work on reducing global catastrophic risk, which is anything that could end human civilization or even cause human extinction.
CV: pdf
Contact info: sbaum [at] psu.edu
Networking: Facebook * LinkedIn * Twitter * Association of American Geographers * Society for Risk Analysis * United States Society for Ecological Economics
At present I am particularly interested in networking with people who are or would like to be working on any aspect of global catastrophic risk.
Photos: html
Updates: Old Updates
8 Jul 2010: A new video overview of my paper Is humanity doomed? Insights from astrobiology is now available at YouTube. The video was produced by Mike Dawson from Penn State Geography. This is my first video overview to go up and thus is somewhat of a pilot effort.
Upcoming Conferences:
Society for Risk Analysis, 5-8 December 2010, Salt Lake City.
About this site: This site is kindly hosted by Knightsbridge Online. The formatting of this site was adapted from W3C's Starting with HTML + CSS page.
Created 15 Jun 2007 * Updated 8 Jul 2010