Typical questions I am interested in exploring are: How do scientists choose and identify phenomena of interest? What kind of assumptions are used to build models of phenomena, and how are they justified? Do these justifications change depending on whom these models provide information for, and if yes, how?
I am particularly interested in exploring these questions in the context of climate change research. My dissertation, for example, draws from case studies in atmospheric science and oceanography to illustrate the challenges that are tied to identifying phenomena, and what kind of assumptions are made in the process of isolating target systems from their environment. I am currently developing an interdisciplinary (history&philosophy of science and social science) research proposal that extends these questions to the distinction between weather and climate and its epistemological and social implications for current efforts to build so-called “seamless prediction” models.
I am also interested in the social and political aspects of climate science, such as issues at the intersection of epistemology, environmental ethics and public policy. At the University of Leeds, for example, I am working with an interdisciplinary research group from the Center for Climate Change Economics and Policy on developing a conceptual framework to analyze the quality of climate information for adaptation. This framework draws on insights from philosophy of science, environmental social science and physical climate science. I also recently joined a project that develops climate risk storylines to explore the remote impacts of climate change on Europe.
Key Publications (full list on Google Scholar)
Kunimitsu, T., Baldissera Pacchetti, M., Ciullo, A., Sillmann, J., Shepherd, T. G., Taner, Ü., van den Hurk, B. (2023). Representing storylines with causal networks to support decision making: frameowrk and example. Climate Risk Management. [open access]
Baldissera Pacchetti, M., Dessai, S., Stainforth, D. A., Bradley, S. (2021). Assessing the quality of state-of-the-art regional climate information: the case of the UK Climate Projections 2018. Climatic Change. [open access]
Baldissera Pacchetti, M., J. Schacher, S. Dessai, M. Bruno Soares, R. Lawlor, J. Daron (2021). Towards a UK Climate Services Code of Ethics. Meeting Summary in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. [open access]
Baldissera Pacchetti, M., S. Dessai, S. Bradley, D. A. Stainforth (2021). Assessing the quality of regional climate information. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. [open access]
Baldissera Pacchetti, M. (online first). Structural uncertainty through the lens of model building. Synthese. [open access]
Baldissera Pacchetti, M. (2018). A role for spatiotemporal scales in modeling. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 67, 14-21. [sciencedirect]
Translations
Baldissera Pacchetti, M. English translations of
- Ehrenfest-Afanassjewa, Tatjana. (1925). Zur Axiomatisierung des zweiten Hauptsatzes der Thermodynamik. Zeitschrift für Physik, 33, 933–945; and
- Selected parts of Ehrenfest-Afanassjewa, Tatjana. (1956). Grundlagen der Thermodynamik. Leiden: Brill.
In Jos Uffink, Giovanni Valente, Charlotte Werndl, & Lena Zuchowski (Eds.), Tatjana Afanassjewa and her legacy: philosophical insights from the work of an original physicist and mathematician. 2020. Springer. [springerlink]
Work in Progress
“Trust and values at the science-policy interface”
Abstract available upon request.
“Towards a standpoint epistemology of climate science” (with Julie Jebeile and Erica Thompson)
Abstract available upon request.
“Weaving the seams of weather and climate” (research project)
Project description available upon request.
Marina Baldissera Pacchetti 