Heidi Cullen

Heidi Cullen is an American climate scientist and science communicator whose career has connected research, journalism, television, and public understanding of environmental change. She has worked as chief scientist at Climate Central, taught science communication at Princeton University, and contributed to ocean and climate initiatives at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Harper published The Weather of the Future in 2010 with the fuller subtitle Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and Other Scenes from a Climate-Changed Planet. The book explains climate science through forecasts for particular places, asking how greenhouse-gas emissions may reshape weather, water, ecosystems, cities, agriculture, and migration by the middle of the century. Cullen combines historical evidence, climate models, and reporting from communities already facing change. The Weather of the Future also discusses adaptation and emissions reduction rather than presenting projected risks in isolation. Her broader work, including service as chief science adviser for the television series Years of Living Dangerously, similarly focuses on making complex climate evidence understandable without separating scientific findings from the decisions they inform.