Chris Funk is the Director of the Climate Hazards Center (CHC) at UC Santa Barbara. He works with an international team of Earth scientists to inform weather and famine-related disaster responses. Chris studies climate and climate change while also developing improved data sets and monitoring/prediction systems. In 2020 Chris and Shrad Shukla published a book on Drought Early Warning and Forecasting. In early 2021, Cambridge Press will publish Dr. Funk’s Drought, Flood, Fire: How Climate Change Contributes to Recent Catastrophes. While his research interests are quite diverse, a central theme uniting Chris’ work is developing both the technical/scientific resources and the conceptual frameworks that will help us cope with increasingly dangerous climate and weather extremes.

Chris lives happily with his wife and twins in the mountains behind Santa Barbara, where he enjoys trail running, biking, stone carving, and working on his house.