Maya Buchanan, a Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs concentrating in in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy (STEP), has received an Outstanding Student Paper Award from the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Her winning presentation at the fall 2016 AGU meeting was titled “Amplification of flood frequencies with local sea-level rise and emerging flood regimes.”  

The work estimates the magnitude and pattern by which the frequency of current flood levels increase with sea level rise across the United States, metrics that are important for developing more resilient coastal settlements, particularly since coastal infrastructure management and flood insurance are often tied to estimates of flood return periods.

This is Buchanan’s second time receiving an Outstanding Student Paper Award from the AGU. She received the same honor last year for her work “Allowances for evolving coastal flood risk under uncertain local sea-level rise.”

The AGU’s Outstanding Student Paper Awards promote, recognize and reward undergraduate, master’s and Ph.D. students for quality research in the geophysical sciences. Each year, sections and focus groups recruit judges to assess and score students’ oral and poster presentations at meetings.

Buchanan’s research interests lie in improving resilience to climate change impacts, particularly to sea level rise in the face of multiple economic and social stressors. Most recently, she worked for the White House Subcommittee on Global Change Research on developing the U.S. government’s priorities in advancing climate science and informing decision-makers.

“Applied climate science research is, by nature, interdisciplinary, requiring a great deal of care when translating its findings into a form understandable to both physical scientists and decision-makers,” Buchanan said. “Presenting my work at the American Geophysical Union was an excellent opportunity to further develop these skills and engage with an array of stakeholders involved in climate science, which will continue to be integral components of my career.”

The American Geophysical Union galvanizes a community of Earth and space scientists that collaboratively advances and communicates science and its power to ensure a sustainable future.