A native of Halifax, Canada, Galbraith completed an undergraduate degree in Earth and Planetary Science at McGill University in 1997, then worked as an exploration geologist in Peru and a tour guide on polar expedition cruises before undertaking a PhD at the University of British Columbia, completed in 2006. This was followed by three years of postdoctoral research at Princeton University, developing and using Earth System models, with a focus on ocean biogeochemistry and long-term climate variability. Galbraith returned to McGill University as a professor, where he worked until joining ICREA in 2015.

Research interests

Over the past century, humans have emerged as a dominant component of the Earth system. But we do not yet have a thorough understanding of how the changes underway will ultimately affect our own well-being. I am interested in using statistical analyses, simple theory and numerical models to improve our predictive understanding of the coupled human-Earth system. Most of my past work has addressed uncertainty in the natural science side of the system, including the study of past, natural climate changes, and the controls on the chemical composition and large-scale ecology of the global ocean. More recently my focus has shifted to developing integrated, quantitative descriptions of the global fishery, including both natural and social elements. I am particularly interested in bridging Earth system modeling methods with social science, in order to better understand the linkages between human dynamics and environmental change.