The Carlson Lab @ Yale
We work on planetary problems. Currently: counting climate change-related deaths; pandemic risk assessment in a changing biosphere; data, science, and vaccine access during public health emergencies. 👉 carlsonlab.bio
- 🚨 We're about to start reviewing applications, but there's still time to reach out for our postdoc position on climate change impact attribution! If you have experience with attribution science or climate epidemiology, and want to help us launch the Global Burden of Climate Change Study, reach out!
- Last week, we were lucky to host an international workshop on Pandemic Risk Scenarios for the 21st Century, with generous support from PAX sapiens and @viralemergence.org. Lots of lessons learned from climate and biodiversity science on how to design useful models and imagine better futures!
- Last week's workshop on scenario development for pandemic risk assessment was a critical step forward for our broader effort on the establishment of an "IPCC for pandemics," with the UN Foundation and the National Academy of Medicine. Thank you to all of our amazing speakers and participants!
- Want to do a postdoc with our group on something related to biodiversity conservation, policy, and the environment? Reach out - applications are open for the Donnelley fellowship! yibs.yale.edu/donnelley-fe...
- We may have a one-year postdoctoral position opening! We're looking for someone with experience in attribution science OR very strong skills in climate epidemiology to come help us launch a Global Burden of Climate Change Study. Remote possible for the right person; aim to raise $ for a second year.
- Up to date information for prospective fellows and students: www.carlsonlab.bio/join
- We had a great time at #ESA2025! Disclaimer: Ekiben sandwich not included in conference registration or ESA membership
- Alright stop, collaborate and
- LISTEN! bsky.app/profile/coli...
- 🚨 NEW today in Nature Genetics: the LISTEN principles are a FAIR-compatible framework that will allow genetic sequence databases to seamlessly participate in new multilateral access and benefit-sharing systems, such as the CBD Cali Fund and the WHO PABS System. 🧬🧪 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- A big announcement today! A huge round of thanks to @yalesph.bsky.social for the support to launch a Global Burden of Climate Change Study. There's nowhere in the world that's better positioned to do this kind of cross-cutting work than @yaleemd.bsky.social and YCCCH. ysph.yale.edu/news-article...
- In a few weeks, we'll be publishing the finding that [redacted] people die every year because of climate change, equivalent to a loss of $[redacted]T USD, every year. Here's what it costs us to open that publication to you. We have no federal grants for that work, and can't apply for them.
- What you can do to help: 1. Make it worth our while to pay for this by sharing the publication when we get it out in the world 2. Donations of any size to @yalesph.bsky.social - hell, a few hundred bucks - go a long way.
- Viral -ologists of all kinds - molecular, ecological, evolutionary - if you haven't yet, consider joining our horizon scan study and help us identify 100 questions that are guiding where your field is going! Fill in the survey and get an invite to a workshop: 📝 airtable.com/appTW4ZoSFjR...
- Open call: If you are a researcher working on a project estimating a cause-specific burden of disease attributable to climate change at regional to global scales, please reach out! We're looking for researchers who might be interested in joining a new collaborative network / workshop series.
- A quick update on healthattribution.org: We're going to make a forward-looking decision for now not to include rapid attribution studies until they're preprints or peer-reviewed articles. This week's study on last week's heatwave in Europe is first of a kind, but likely to be the first of many (1/3)
- We're making this decision so we can keep a standardized approach, and not ultimately duplicate the efforts of programs like www.worldweatherattribution.org (2/3)
- However, if you want to keep an eye on that space, the best way to do it is to follow climate scientists like @frediotto.bsky.social who are doing this important work! (3/3) www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/pub...
- Okay, we've been using a logo we ... may or may not have stolen from @grist.org for too long. Are you a graphic designer who wants to do a new lab logo for us? We will give you money in exchange for goods and services! Please link us your work below, and we'll reach out
- Some exciting new work at Pandemic Sciences in Oxford!
- "You have died of dysentery." A path into science shouldn't be as fraught as the Oregon Trail. Check out epidemiologist, NSF GRFP fellow, and Kansan @haileyrobertson.bsky.social's McClintock letter in the Topeka Capital-Journal! www.cjonline.com/story/opinio...
- It's been a quiet and hot afternoon in New Haven, which means it's time for our mid-year update to 🔥HAL🔥 (healthattribution.org). Here's what the latest research says about deaths, disability, and dollars lost to climate change (1/?)
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View full threadWe maintain the only living database of studies that measure the present-day health impacts of climate change. Please share, and support our work if you can - elbow grease and cash both go a long way for climate-health labs right now. (8/?) www.healthattribution.org/database
- Finally, stay tuned for two exciting updates - one on the scientific paper that goes with this database (!), and one on our effort to count all of the deaths from climate change (!!) - by following along at @carlsonlab.bsky.social or on our website (carlsonlab.bio), and feel free to reach out! (9/9)
- Aerosol pollution has been 'masking' climate change, offsetting the effect of greenhouse gasses. A new study by Kai Wan and colleagues shows that the uptick in heat-related deaths would've been spotted 20-40 years earlier if not for that masking effect. (6/?) www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
- 🏝️⛈️ New research by Vikrant Panwar and colleagues shows that islands are at the frontlines of the climate crisis, with 150 deaths annually due to extreme weather (= $1.7B USD = 0.8% of their GDP). 3/4 are due to storms, and 90% are in the Caribbean. (7/?) link.springer.com/article/10.1...
- Hot days kill, but hot days in a row are deadlier. A new preprint by @ccallahan45.bsky.social and colleagues shows that climate change killed 10x more people than we thought during the summer 2003 heatwave in Europe - the deadliest natural disaster on record. (4/?) eartharxiv.org/repository/v...
- Wildfires are making air unbreathable every summer in the United States. New research by Bev Law and colleagues finds that fire-related air pollution killed 15,000 people (= a loss of $160 billion USD) in 2006-2020, with 34% of that just in 2020. (5/?) www.nature.com/articles/s43...
- During the sweltering summer of 2022, there were over 60,000 heat-related deaths in Europe. New research by Thessa Beck and colleagues found that over half were attributable to climate change - with a disproportionate impact on women and 80+ year olds. (2/?) www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- ^ This one is actually a correction - we should've added it to the database ages ago, but I got it confused with this very similar preprint, also from those authors in 2024, also looking at summer 2022 in Europe (3/?) www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-5...
- Stuck inside hiding from the heat? You're not alone - especially when respiratory viruses are in the air indoors. Make sure not to miss this new study: we found that if just 10% of people mask during wildfires, it could offset increases in flu, RSV, and Covid-19. journals.plos.org/climate/arti...
- Do you study wildlife disease? Don't just share your sequences - share your testing data! We've developed a minimum data standard and an R package to help you, and wrote a little how-to-share-data handbook for disease ecology and One Health surveillance projects 🦇🦟🦠🗺️🔢 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Congratulations to Cole Brookson on receiving an inaugural Yale Planetary Solutions Doctoral Fellowship! planetarysolutions.yale.edu/news/introdu...
- Carlson Lab in full force at #EEID2025!
- Lots of exciting work coming out of our lab these days! If you're not already, make sure to follow the crew: 🦟🗺️💻 @haileyrobertson.bsky.social 🐔😷🌡️ @torrelavelle.bsky.social 🌡️📈📏 @colebrookson.bsky.social 🦟📈🌊 @rafalpx.bsky.social 🔢💻📚 @collin-schwantes.bsky.social 🪱🚴♂️🥸 @colincarlson.bsky.social
- There's also all sorts of work happening that you won't see on here, but can find on our lab website: carlsonlab.bio
- Hey YSPH students! Are you excited about climate change, zoonotic and vector-borne diseases, ecology, and global governance? We've got a new course for you! Check out EMD 568:
- Some coverage of our recent work on Oropouche virus. Big lingering questions: Where are these midges? Are we at risk in the United States? Is climate change contributing to bigger epidemics? ysph.yale.edu/news-article...
- It's Research Day here at Yale EMD! Huge congrats to Shoa Moosavi on her project - the first study (hopefully of many!) to think about the epidemiological consequences of the PABS System.
- New from @rafalpx.bsky.social: dengue risk remains high throughout Brazil, despite consecutive record-breaking epidemic years
- Check out postdoc @rafalpx.bsky.social talking about his exciting work on climate change and arbovirus epidemiology! 👏👏👏 medicine.yale.edu/news-article...
- Are countries in the Americas preparing for the next pandemic? Yes - but mostly if that pandemic is a respiratory virus like influenza or Covid-19. Congrats to M.S. student Shoa Moosavi on her first publication! 🎉😷🧪 academic.oup.com/jid/article/...
- Big updates to our lab website today that will make it easier to search our work, especially for our work on specific pathogens and governance-related topics. Everything we publish is available as a PDF! 🔓👉 www.carlsonlab.bio/publications
- 🚨 How do you conduct responsible research in an epidemic? New guidance paper from an NIH/NIAID workshop led by @emilyricotta.bsky.social out now in @bmj.com Global Health: "Observational research in epidemic settings: a roadmap to reform." 🔓😷🧪 gh.bmj.com/content/bmjg...
- Timely work on data integration for flu spillover prediction from @haileyrobertson.bsky.social and collaborators: "Understanding ecological systems using knowledge graphs: an application to highly pathogenic avian influenza" 🔓 academic.oup.com/bioinformati...
