Galen studies climate change impacts, risk perception and policy level decision making with a focus on urban water management and sea level rise in south Florida. As part of the NSF funded South Florida Water Sustainability and Climate project, he uses a combination of qualitative (interviews + participant observation) and quantitative (experiments + surveys) techniques to identify behavioral barriers to the effective use of scientific information, including a hydro-economic model that optimizes water allocation for the Everglades watershed across multiple future climate and land use scenarios.

In his experimental research, Galen uses an online tool that accelerates participants in time to simulate the experience of future hazard. Through collaboration with partners including agencies and local governments, the aim is to contribute to the effective implementation of sustainable, climate resilient policy. Before coming to the University of Miami, Galen was a research assistant at Columbia University’s Center for Research on Environmental Decisions and Columbia Business School’s Center for Decision Sciences. He received his BA in economics from Oberlin College and is an NSF graduate research fellow.