Jonathan Gilligan

Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Vanderbilt University

  • Nashville TN

Expert on the impact of human behavior and public policy on climate, with a focus on how small changes add up to make big differences.

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Environmental scientist on heat wave in western U.S.

Jonathan Gilligan, Associate Professor of Earth & Environmental Science and Civil & Environmental Engineering at Vanderbilt University, is available for commentary on the recent heat waves and how climate change plays a role. Professor Gilligan's research focuses on global climate change and environmental policy. He also serves on Vanderbilt's Climate Change Research Network, which focuses on the reduction of carbon emissions from individuals and households. He can speak to how climate change is affecting our temperatures and future related trends we might see.

Jonathan Gilligan

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Biography

Jonathan M Gilligan is Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Vanderbilt University.

He is Associate Director for Research at the Vanderbilt Climate Change Research Network, a member of the Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and Environment, the Vanderbilt Initiative for Smart-city Operations Research and a founding member of the Erdős Institute for Collaboration, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship.

In 2017, Gilligan and Michael Vandenbergh received the Morrison Prize, awarded by the program in Law and Sustainability at Arizona State University to the highest-impact paper on sustainability law and policy published in the previous year.

He is the author of one book and over 86 scholarly articles. He is also co-author, with Carol Gilligan, of the play “The Scarlet Letter” and the libretto for the opera “Pearl.”

Areas of Expertise

Atmospheric Science
Environmental Policy
Climate Change
Water Conservation
Risk Management

Education

Yale University

Ph.D.

1991

Swarthmore College

B.S.

1982

Selected Media Appearances

Special report: Tennessee's power generation is cleaner than ever. The next step is a 'huge question'

Tennessean  online

2022-10-26

Even without widespread battery use (TVA will only have 51 megawatts of storage online by the end of the year, according to federal data), TVA could still increase solar’s share of the energy mix from its current 3% up to 20% without problems, said Vanderbilt engineering professor Jonathan Gilligan.

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Op-Ed: Here’s how companies can strong-arm their suppliers into cutting carbon emissions

Los Angeles Times  online

2022-10-04

The Inflation Reduction Act is both the most important federal climate legislation ever and sadly inadequate to protect the U.S. and the world from the effects of climate change. Where it falls short, states could intervene with tougher regulations — but many won’t. That leaves corporations, which can pressure their suppliers to take the actions necessary to prevent global warming’s most devastating effects.

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Electric Vehicles Don’t Have To Be Elitist - They Can Erode Social Inequities

Forbes  

2022-03-11

Vanderbilt University professor Jonathan Gilligan tweeted recently that “transition to electric vehicles can be a powerful force for social and environmental justice if we do it right.” I agree with him. When I asked Terry Travis what does success look like, he told me, “We would like to see the communities hit “worst and first” leading the conversation around clean and sustainable transportation, energy and environmental equity while simultaneously we have moved beyond mere consumerism and created workforce and economic opportunities for these burdened communities in the Auto 2.0 ecosystem.”

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Selected Articles

A Study of the Geographic Variances in Water Salience using Local Newspapers

American Geophysical Union

Witte, A.; Hornberger, G. M.; Gunda, T.; Gilligan, J. M.

2018

Water use patterns in the U.S. have been shown to be highly variable geographically. This observation led us to consider whether there were similar geographic distinctions in the relationship between public awareness and understanding of water issues and water related behaviors.

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Session details: Environment and sustainability applications: Urban ecology

Proceedings of the 2018 Winter Simulation Conference

Sigríður Sigurðardóttir, Jonathan M. Gilligan

2018

WSC '18 Proceedings of the 2018 Winter Simulation Conference

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Agent-based Modeling of Human Adaptation in the Sinking Landscapes of the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta

American Geophysical Union

Tasich, C. M.; Gilligan, J. M.; Goodbred, S. L., Jr.

2018

The inhabitants of the low-lying tidal reaches of the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta rely on polders (earthen-embanked islands) to protect against tidal inundation and storm surge. These embankments have reclaimed land supporting a population of 20 million people but have disconnected the land from the tidal network.

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