Diffenbaugh received his Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2003. His dissertation was entitled “Global and regional controls on Holocene environments”.[6] His dissertation focused on understanding regional climate change in paleoclimate periods and in modern periods. His dissertation introduced the hypothesis that as vegetation responds to changes in climate, those changes could impact coastal ocean systems by altering the atmospheric pressure patterns that drive coastal winds.[7]
In 2004, Diffenbaugh began a faculty position at Purdue University.[1] While at Purdue, he published first results of high-resolution regional climate simulations for large continental areas, including the United States, Europe and India, which enabled analysis of the role of fine-scale climate processes in extreme events.[8][9][10][11] These high-resolution climate model simulations also enabled analyses of potential impacts of climate change on a suite of systems, including premium winegrapes, corn pests, and snowmelt runoff.[12][13][14]
In 2009, Diffenbaugh moved to a faculty position at Stanford University.[1] He continued his work on the dynamics and impacts of fine-scale climate change,[15] and also began working in the emerging area of “extreme event attribution”.[16] This work culminated in the publication of a new, generalized framework for testing the influence of global warming on individual extreme weather and climate events.[5][17]
The extreme event for which Diffenbaugh is most well known is the 2011-2017 California drought.[4] From 2014-2016, Diffenbaugh's research group published three widely cited papers analyzing the drought and the role of global warming.[18][19][20] These studies analyzed the role of high temperature in amplifying the effects of low precipitation, as well as the role of the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge, a term coined by Diffenbaugh's then-Ph.D. student Daniel Swain to describe the large area of persistently high atmospheric pressure that blocked many storms from reaching California for much of the drought.[21]
At Stanford, Diffenbaugh also began collaborations to quantify the economic impacts of climate change. This work has included quantifying the economic damages associated with different levels of global warming (including the levels identified in the UN Paris Agreement),[22] as well as the role that global warming has played in shaping economic inequality between countries.[23]
Diffenbaugh has written a number of opinion articles.[citation needed] He was an early adopter of Hangouts On Air, through which he conducted open discussions about climate change with the public.[26][27]
In 2017, Diffenbaugh was the faculty moderator for Stanford University's Three Books Program, in which all incoming first-year undergraduate students are sent three books over the summer, and the authors come to campus for a panel discussion during New Student Orientation.[28]
Personal life
Diffenbaugh grew up at Mount Madonna Center, an intentional community in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California that was founded in 1978 by Diffenbaugh's parents and other students of Baba Hari Dass. He attended Mount Madonna School from kindergarten through high school, graduating in 1992.[29][30]
Diffenbaugh attended college at Stanford University, where he was a member of the varsity men's volleyball team.[31] After college, he returned to Mount Madonna Center for three years.[29] During that time, he taught high school science and coached volleyball at Mount Madonna School, before entering graduate school at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he describes struggling to find a sense of scientific confidence and direction.[29]
Diffenbaugh and his wife Polly Diffenbaugh live on the Stanford campus, and have three children.[4] He is the grandson of computer pioneer Erwin Tomash,[32] and brother-in-law of novelist Vanessa Diffenbaugh.
