Kyle is an active duty U.S. Army Officer with operational experience in North and West Africa, Afghanistan, South Korea and Germany. Before joining the Army, Kyle worked as an intern at NATO Headquarters in Brussels and as a field representative for a California state legislator. His current research interests include military strategy, irregular and partnered warfare, alliance dynamics and military effectiveness. Following his time at Princeton, Kyle will teach in the social science department at the United States Military Academy.

Tom grew up in a small town in the North of England, and then moved to London to pursue a degree in economics and philosophy at the LSE. Motivated by a desire to work on issues related to energy, climate change, and public policy, he then went on to work for several years in the U.K.'s energy regulator and then to study a masters in economics at the University of Cambridge. For the last two years, Tom has worked as a pre-doctoral fellow at the Climate Impact Lab, researching the impacts of climate change on energy consumption and migration patterns. At Princeton, he plans to research topics related to climate change, inequality, and policy.

Captain Merlin Boone is an active-duty officer in the United States Army. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Security Studies program at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. His research interests include great power politics, international political economy, and Northeast Asian security. Previously, Merlin served as a Civil Affairs Team Chief in Alpha Company, 97th Civil Affairs Battalion (Special Operations) (Airborne). He has served overseas in the Middle East and the Asia Pacific.

Nic is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the STEP program, studying the links between climate change and human migration. He double-majored in biomedical engineering and international relations at the University of Southern California, vowing never to touch engineering again. After an internship with the Canadian Consulate in San Francisco, centered on energy and environmental issues, Nic promptly pursued a master’s in chemical and petroleum engineering, with a focus on life cycle assessment and greenhouse gas emissions from Canada’s oil sands. He then worked in various sustainability roles in the Canadian energy industry. Nic is a proud Canadian, originally hailing from Quebec and most recently living in Calgary, Alberta, and enjoys playing and talking about sports, reading, Americana music, and practicing language skills (Quebecois French, rusty Spanish, and some Mandarin).

Chris is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the environmental policy program, studying biodiversity conservation through the lens of agricultural land-use change. As demographic, technological, and environmental forces change the spatial distribution of agriculture, Chris is particularly interested in regions where agriculture is being abandoned or repurposed, and the environmental trade-offs these changes represent. Where does abandonment occur, and to what extent is it durable? Where will these transitions present opportunities for habitat regeneration in former agricultural fields, and how might policy be designed to harness these opportunities and encourage conservation? Where agricultural expansion is necessary, can spatial land-use prioritization tools help minimize biodiversity loss? Chris aims to answer these questions by leveraging global datasets and geospatial analysis tools while drawing on the fields of ecology, environmental science, and economics. Prior to graduate school, Chris worked at the nonprofit Sustainable Conservation in San Francisco, working to encourage river restoration in California’s Central Valley and prevent the use of invasive plants in gardening and landscaping. Chris graduated from the University of Michigan in 2012, and likes riding his bicycle, taking pictures of clouds, and listening to Swedish music.