Steve Koonin is the former Undersecretary for Science in the Obama administration and author of Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn't, and Why It Matters.

He earned his theoretical physics Ph.D. from MIT, joined the faculty at CalTech as an assistant professor of theoretical physics, and served as the institute's provost for nine years. After joining BP as their chief scientist and then serving as the Undersecretary for Science at the U.S. Department of Energy, he was appointed the founding director of NYU's Center for Urban Science and Progress in 2012, where he is a professor in the Department of Civil and Urban Engineering.