Dan Zwartz is an earth scientist with experience translating climate science for governments and policy makers. He was Principal Scientist, climate change, for the New Zealand Ministry for Environment, where he oversaw updated adaptation guidance for local government, provided advice on setting the new 2050 emissions target in 2019, and led government engagement with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Dan is currently in Melbourne with the climate science team at the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning for the state of Victoria, Australia.
Dan has a BSc (Hons) in Geology from Victoria University and a PhD in Earth Science from the Australian National University. He has worked extensively on the contribution to global sea level from the Antarctic ice sheets, and spent ten summers in Antarctica conducting geological and geophysical field work with the New Zealand, Australian, Japanese and Dutch national programmes.
Dan coordinated the interdisciplinary undergraduate summer course on climate change, ESCI 201 “Climate Change and New Zealand’s Future” for six years, and now contributes lectures to SCIS 211 “Contemporary Issues in Science, Environment and Technology”.