Sabine Marx is the Associate Director at the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED) and holds an adjunct research position at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI). With a Ph.D. in medical history and Masters degrees in Sociology, Pedagogy, and Psychology, and post-doctoral training in decision making under climate uncertainty, Marx’ work integrates multiple disciplines and strives for an interdisciplinary perspective.
In her current position, Sabine Marx is responsible for the coordination of 20-plus research projects – lab and field projects which address the question of how to enhance the methods and capabilities for societal decision making under conditions of complexity and uncertainty about global environmental variability and change. Particular objectives are the human responses to climate change and climate variability as well as improved communication and increased use of scientific information on climate variability and change.
More specifically, Sabine Marx’ research focuses on seasonal climate forecast use in public health and agriculture. Her work deals with infectious, mosquito-borne diseases, how their transmission is influenced by climatic factors, and how advance knowledge of higher epidemic potential can be used in early warning systems. Marx has worked with decision makers in Southern Africa where she developed an instructional poster for a Malaria Early Warning System, in collaboration with WHO-Afro. Beyond the communication of scientific information, her research is interested in the question of why, even if a great deal of information is available, do decision makers not use it to its optimal potential. Some of the obstacles lie in the mismatch of people’s mental models and the provided scientific information. She explores this problem in the context of farmer’s use of climate information in Argentina and Florida, as well as malaria control personnel’s use of climate information in Southern Africa. Other hurdles in the use of information can be found in the way people process information. She currently explores the influence of mental processes on the success or failure of communication. How do individuals and groups utilize experiential and analytic processing and how can a better understanding of these processes inform the development of decision aids?
For more information about research at
CRED.
