David Keith (scientist)

David W. Keith is Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics for the Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and Professor of Public Policy for the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University. He is also Executive Chairman of Carbon Engineering.

Keith’s research has spanned several domains, including climate-related technology assessment and policy analysis, technology development, atmospheric science, and physics.

Keith has worked on solar geoengineering since 1992, when he wrote one of the first assessments of the technology and its policy implications. Since Keith’s 1992 paper, which introduced a structured comparison of cost and risk, and a later review paper that first described the moral hazard and set geoengineering in the post-war history of weather control, Keith has sought answers to the questions: