Seven new faculty members join the School of Science this fall

The School of Science recently welcomed seven new professors in the departments of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences; Mathematics; and Physics. Their research ranges from the hunt for dark matter to climate modeling to mapping the three-dimensional structure of the genome.

Timothy Cronin is a climate physicist interested in problems relating to radiative‐convective equilibrium, atmospheric moist convection and clouds, and the physics of the coupled land‐atmosphere system. His work so far has focused on developing a better understanding of radiative‐convective equilibrium, which is the simplest model of planetary climate that can adequately address questions of sensitivity and stability that are fundamental in the context of global warming and planetary habitability. His long‐term research goals are centered on major questions in climate science, including the importance of clouds in global climate sensitivity and determinism, and the coupled dynamics of the land surface‐atmosphere system.

After Cronin earned a BA in physics with high honors from Swarthmore College in 2006, he worked as a researcher in the Marine Biological Laboratory at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution until 2009, where he worked to improve the representation of biogeochemistry and biophysics in a terrestrial ecosystem model. He received his PhD in climate physics and chemistry at MIT in 2014 and then was appointed an NOAA Environment Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University, where he studied how Arctic air formation is suppressed in a warmer climate. Cronin joins the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences as an assistant professor.

Read the full story in MIT News.