2025 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate: The Promises and Pitfalls of Geoengineering 

Holly Jean Buck, associate professor in the Department of Environment and Sustainability at the University at Buffalo and a Radcliffe-Salata Climate Justice Fellow at Harvard University, is an interdisciplinary environmental social scientist whose research seeks to understand how people engage with emerging climate and energy technologies. Her work is policy-focused and grounded in talking with community members and investigating how the politics of technologies for climate invention, the path to end fossil fuels, and carbon removal directly affect local people. 

Elizabeth L. Chalecki is an associate professor of international relations at the University of Nebraska Omaha, a research fellow in the Environmental Change and Security Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and a research chair with Fulbright Canada.  Her expertise lies in the areas of climate change and security, international environmental policy, and the intersection of science/technology and international relations.  She also serves as a climate security subject-matter expert for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and an official Mad Scientist for the U.S. Army. 

Howard Herzog, senior research engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative, focuses his research on greenhouse gas mitigation technologies. He was a coordinating lead author for the 2005 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage and, from 2003-2007, a US delegate to the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum's Technical Group. He was awarded the 2010 Greenman Award by the International Energy Agency (IEA) Greenhouse Gas R&D (IEAGHG) "in recognition of contributions made to the development of greenhouse gas control technologies." In 2018, he authored a book entitled Carbon Capture for the MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series, and his book  Carbon Removal will be released in August 2025. 

Dustin Mulvaney, professor of environmental studies at San José State University, is an interdisciplinary researcher specializing in energy systems, land use change, and environmental governance. His expertise is in the socio-ecological dimensions of emerging clean technologies including solar panels and lithium-ion batteries, which are crucial to solving climate change. In addition to writing several books, producing scores of academic articles and white papers, and preparing expert testimony for regulators and legislators, Dr. Mulvaney is a contributing author to the 6th National Climate Assessment of the United States Global Change Research Program. 

Kevin Surprise, senior lecturer of environmental studies at Mount Holyoke College, is a human geographer who specializes in the political economy of climate change, focusing on the ways in which capitalism both drives and constrains responses to the climate crisis. His research examines the economic rationales and geopolitical dynamics of solar geoengineering technologies and governance mechanisms. In particular, he is studying relationships between militaries, climate technologies, and militarized climate responses, as these approaches often prevent and supersede more just, equitable climate solutions. 

Daniele Visioni, assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Science at Cornell University, is a climate scientist specializing in the behavior of stratospheric aerosols. His research advances understanding of climate intervention methods and their potential impact on climate, ecosystems, and societies, in addition to understanding the effects of past and present volcanic activity. Currently, he co-chairs the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project and the World Climate Research Programme Lighthouse Activity on Climate Intervention Research and is a frequent collaborator for the Degrees Initiative (previously Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative).