Oliver Lucier
Oliver Lucier is a sixth year PhD candidate in the History of Science & Medicine Program at Yale University. Oliver is dedicated to bringing together environmental history with the history of science in an effort to understand the motivations and implications of current environmental policy. As an environmental historian of US and the world, my research focuses on the history and impact of scientific knowledge about climate change during the long 20th century. In his dissertation, Fields, Deserts, and Forests: Climatic Limits of Sustainable Development, 1890-2010, Oliver analyzes bioclimatic classifications and their role in managing environmental crises.
His recent article based on this research, entitled “Climate Conscious: Holdridge Life Zones and Caribbean Commodities,” was published in Isis and received the History of Science Society’s Nathan Reingold Prize for best essay on the history of science by a graduate student. At Yale he has designed and taught an upper-level undergraduate history seminar on the intertwined histories of colonialism, capitalism, and climate science, served as a McDougal Teaching Fellow, and organized an interdisciplinary workshop on the Interactions of Climate and Life.
Before arriving at Yale, Oliver graduated from Rice University with a BA in History with Honors and a BS in Earth Science and from Durham University with an MA in Geography with Distinction. He welcomes inquiries about the history of environmental science or about the HSHM program at Yale.