Alexander More

Alexander More

Research Associate, Initiative for the Science of the Human Past
Alex More

For the most updated information, and for press inquiries, please click here.

Appointments (Current)
Research Associate, Department of History, Harvard University, 2018-present
Assistant Research Professor, Climate Change Institute, 2017-present
Managing Editor, Harvard's Digital Historical Atlas (DARMC)

Appointments (Past)
Post-doctoral Fellow, Department of History, Harvard University, 2015-2018
Postdoctoral Fellow, Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, 2015-2017
Lecturer on the History of Science (U.S. and European health and welfare), Harvard University 2015-16
Teaching Fellow and Doctoral Candidate, Harvard University, 2008-2014

Education
PhD, Harvard University
MA, Harvard University
BA, Washington University in St. Louis

Alexander More's research focuses on the impact of climate change on population health and the economy. By using both climate science and historical records, More brings recent drastic changes into a broader perspective, one that permits stark comparisons between current and historical trends in temperature, pollution, pandemic disease, and extreme weather, all of which directly impact food production, human health, economic prosperity, and political stability. He is author of several landmark studies of pre-industrial climate and pollution and an active contributor to the field of planetary health. He currently holds an appointment in the Department of History at Harvard University and is also Assistant Research Professor at the Climate Change Institute. Combining the expertise and resources of the two institutions, More leads a project on the impact of climate change on human and ecosystem health and the economy in the last millennium. In addition to academic journals, his work has been featured in The Washington Post, CNN, Natural History Magazine, The Guardian, Popular Science, Forbes, Smithsonian Magazine, Der Spiegel, Archaeology Magazine, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemein, Atlas Obscura, Eos, Science et vie, and more than 150 other print and online publications (see media page).

The implications of his data bring him to study government response to environmental and public health crises. He is completing a book on the origins of welfare and health care policy in the western world, a long-standing interest that gained him a position in the Office of Senator Ted Kennedy while he was drafting the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). More’s interests have taken him to traditional archival repositories, as well as to expeditions to archaeological sites across Europe, North America and Oceania, including several underwater surveys in the Mediterranean, North Atlantic and South Pacific. More is a published photographer, specializing in underwater, archaeological and wildlife subjects related to his research.

Raised and educated in Europe in the early part of his life, More moved permanently to New York City to complete his secondary education. He attended college in Chicago and eventually Washington University in St. Louis. Immediately after graduation, he continued his studies in an interdisciplinary PhD program at Harvard University, where he has taught ten different courses and earned as many teaching awards. He has supervised seven theses, with topics ranging from the creation and evolution of Medicaid and Medicare legislation in the United States, to the establishment of the public health system in post-revolutionary Mexico and the Sultanate of Oman, the early history of modern foreign relations, the leading role of women in the creation of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the first food enrichment policies in interwar United States.

Dr. More is a frequent contributor in media coverage of climate change, economic history and the history of health. His work extends into the non-profit world, where he has supervised a Harvard-Columbia student-run, public-health/environmental initiative in Bolivia—now a full-fledged NGO, Refresh Bolivia—securing initial funding with two grants from the Ford Fund. Dr. More also serves as Managing Director of the World Ocean Forum, and as Communications and Education Director at Blue Ocean Watch, two climate-oriented ocean non-profits. Dr. More is a fellow of the Explorers Club, a former junior fellow of Dumbarton Oaks Research Library in Washington, D.C. and a recipient of the Arango Fund and Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation Research Grants.

 

Contact Information

Robinson Hall L-14
35 Quincy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

People Categories