Caldas, Astrid
Astrid Caldas
Dr. Astrid Caldas is the Senior Climate Scientist for Community Resilience at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Following decades of academic work in ecology, she shifted her focus to climate change and has years of experience working in and researching community resilience, science communication, environmental justice, and equitable climate policy. Her expertise has taken her to town halls, panels, communities of faith, grassroots organizing, rallies, and beyond. Dr. Caldas’ knowledge and dedication to the subject matter have been widely seen, from The New York Times to NBC News and more.
Caldas, A. (contributing author) in Leite, F., Meyer, M., Watson, M. et al., 2022. Moving Resilience Research to Action in the Gulf Coast, National Science Foundation-funded workshop white paper. University of Texas. https://caee.utexas.edu/prof/leite/index_files/Moving%20Resilience%20Res…
Kruczkiewicz, A., Cian, F., Caldas, A. Royz, M., Glasscoe, M., Ranger, N., van Aalst, M., 2022. Multiform flood risk in a rapidly changing world: what we do not do, what we should do and why it matters, Environmental Research Letters, 17(8). https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac7ed9
Phillips, C. A., Caldas, A., Cleetus, R., Dahl, K. A., Declet-Barret, J., Licker, R., Merner, L. D., Ortiz-Partida, J. P., Phelan, A. L., Spanger-Siegfried, E., Talati, S., Trisos, C. H. & Carlson, C. J., 2020. Compound climate risks in the COVID-19 pandemic, Nature Climate Change, 10. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0804-2
Delach, A., Caldas, A., Edson, K. M., Krehbiel, R., Murray, S., Theoharides, K. A., Vorhees, L. J., Malcom, J. W., Salvo, M. N., Miller, J. R. B. 2019. Agency plans are inadequate to conserve US endangered species under climate change, Nature Climate Change, 9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0620-8
Dahl, K., Spanger-Siegfried, E., Licker, R., Caldas, A., Cleetus, R., Udvardy, S., Declet-Barreto, J., Worth, P., 2019, July 2. Killer Heat in the United States: Climate Choices and the Future of Dangerously Hot Days, Union of Concerned Scientists. https://www.ucsusa.org/killer-heat
Most of Dr. Astrid Caldas’ education was in her native country of Brazil. She completed a bachelor’s in biology and a Master of Science in Entomology. She received her Doctorate in Ecology from Universidade Estadual de Campinas. In 2008, when she changed careers from ecology to climate change, Dr. Caldas attended the University of Maryland Global Campus. She graduated in 2012 with a Master of Science in Environmental Management.
Since 1996, Dr. Caldas has been an honorary research associate of the Smithsonian Institute. While neither paid nor a federal government employee, Dr. Caldas has contributed to significant research publications, including developing management and conservation planning tools for national parks and assessing butterfly diversity and abundance.
Dr. Caldas worked as a Research Scientist for the University of Maryland from 1999 to 2009. In her role, she developed and published a new method for non-parametric statistical analyses of species abundance distributions, assisted in project design and management, and worked in agricultural and natural environments.
From 2011 to 2013, Dr. Caldas worked for Defenders of Wildlife as a Climate Change and Wildlife Science Fellow, helping co-author reports, advising integration of climate adaptation into programming, and conducting research on climate science, adaptation, communication, and socio-environmental dimensions of conservation. Following her fellowship, she joined the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for a year as an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow. As a fellow, Dr. Caldas designed and reviewed Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) indicators for policy and tracked indicator performance against targets for specific projects. With USAID, she also helped represent the Bureau for Food Security M&E to other USAID departments, governmental agencies, and other stakeholders.
Dr. Caldas joined the Union of Concerned Scientists in 2015 as a Senior Climate Scientist, working in four distinct areas: climate communication, climate impacts adaptation, policy, and stakeholder engagement. She researches subject matter to develop materials to increase public awareness, including research publications, fact sheets, and op-eds, among others. Dr. Caldas ensures collaboration among colleagues and climate experts through strategic engagement and outreach.
Further highlighting her expertise, she has been involved on numerous panels and has spoken at rallies, town halls, and community centers. She has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, NBC, USA Today, CBS, and PBS News Hour, among other highly publicized media channels and journals.
“Students can learn a lot of theory and even some practice in college, sure, but nothing beats hearing from someone who has done something they are considering doing. Choosing a career – a starter one or a long-term one – is something that can cause a lot of angst. I think mentoring is an essential part of the informational package students need to receive in order to make a better decision on what they want to try in their years post-college. High school students also benefit from mentoring, especially to decide if college is an option they’d like to pursue. Mentoring opens new doors and can mean different decisions at different times of professional life. There is nothing saying you need to choose something and stick with it for the rest of your life. But without good mentoring, it is more of a hit or miss and certainly more stressful” (2023).
The main thing Dr. Caldas always says to early career professionals is: “Follow your gut. Do not do something because someone said it is good. Do it because you think you will like it, because you want to learn it, or even because you want to try something new. Money is important, yes, but there is usually no point in being wealthy and miserable. If you don’t really know what you want to do, there is no harm in going through different jobs while you are young and exploring. That is the time to do it! But always remember that good planning is important so that at a certain point in your life you can focus on what brings you joy and fulfillment” (2023).
Astrid Caldas, PhD. LinkedIn. n.d. Retrieved October 2023 from https://www.linkedin.com/in/acaldas/
Survey and interviews conducted by Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Sustainability Initiative staff. 2022-2023. Yale University-School of the Environment. New Haven, Connecticut.
Astrid Caldas. Union of Concerned Scientists. n.d. Retrieved October 2023 from https://www.ucsusa.org/about/people/astrid-caldas
Union of Concerned Scientists