Torbjorn Tornqvist is an environmental scientist whose research is heavily focused on coastal Louisiana. Among others, he studies sea-level change, land subsidence, and coastal evolution with the goal of better predicting the future of this region as well as similar coastal settings worldwide. The backdrop for much of this work is human-driven climate change and the rapid transformations of the Earth system that will be felt by communities in the most vulnerable coastal regions earlier than in most other places. New Orleans and its surroundings serve as an internationally recognized poster child for such a region. As such, it is hard to imagine a better and more inspiring setting than A Studio in the Woods to focus on this research.

Torbjorn worked on several projects while in the Woods, including (1) a better understanding of the future of New Orleans and its surrounding coastal zone within the context of climate change and (2) the role of regions like coastal Louisiana in the carbon cycle and hence the global climate system.

Photo by Vicki Mayer