Staff Profile Center for Community and Citizen Science EMPHASIS AREA: SCI/AG

Ryan Meyer

Executive Director, Center for Community and Citizen Science

Curriculum Vitae | Twitter


I direct the Center for Community and Citizen Science at the UC Davis School of Education. Our mission is to help scientists, communities, and citizens collaborate on science to address environmental problems as a part of civic life. Learn more and sign up for our mailing list here.

My background is in science and technology policy, with a focus on science funding institutions, and the role of science in decision making. Areas of past/current work include climate science, climate adaptation, ocean and coastal resources, watershed health, cooperative extension and community and citizen science.

I am a faculty member in three Graduate Groups — Education, Ecology, and Environmental Policy & Management. I am not currently available to serve as a primary academic advisor to Ph. D. students, but welcome conversations about serving on committees and other forms of mentorship for students at any stage, if there is a good fit.

Bio

Ryan Meyer is the Executive Director of the Center for Community and Citizen Science at the UC Davis School of Education. His career has focused on the dynamics between science society, and on the role of science in environmental decision making. He has studied and written about science funding, the role of public values in our science system, boundary organizations and co-production of science for decision making, and public participation in research.

Ryan was previously Program Director at the California Ocean Science Trust, a non-profit boundary organization that helps scientists and decision makers collaborate more effectively. He completed his PhD at Arizona State University, where he conducted research on climate science funding in the US and Australia. He is a Fulbright Scholar, an affiliate of the Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes at Arizona State University, and a 2023 Public Scholarship Faculty Fellow.

Select Publications

Full CV available here.

Jagannathan, K., … Meyer, R., et al. (2023). A research agenda for the science of actionable knowledge: Drawing from a review of the most misguided to the most enlightened claims in the science-policy interface literature. Environmental Science & Policy, 144, 174–186.

Meyer, R., Ballard, H., and Jadallah, C. (2020). A Manual for Planning Your Community-Based Citizen Science Monitoring Project For Dam Removal and Watershed Restoration

Arnott, J.C., Kirchhoff, C., Meyer, R., Meadow, A., Bednarek, A. (2020). Sponsoring actionable science: what public science funders can do to advance sustainability and the social contract for science. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. 42: 38-44

Moss, R. H., S. Avery, … R. Meyer, et al. 2019. Evaluating Knowledge to Support Climate Action: A Framework for Sustained Assessment. Weather, Climate, and Society, April. https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-18-0134.1.

Lemos, M. C., J. C. Arnott, … R. Meyer,  et al. (2018). “To Co-Produce or Not to Co-Produce.” Nature Sustainability 1 (12): 722.

Freiwald, J., Meyer, R., et al. (2018). Citizen science monitoring of marine protected areas: case studies and recommendations for integration into monitoring programs. Marine Ecology. 39:e12470 https://doi.org/10.1111/maec.12470

Bednarek, A., Wyborn, C., Cvitanovic, C., Meyer, R., et al. (2018). Boundary-spanning at the science-policy interface: The practitioners’ perspectives. Sustainability Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-018-0550-9

Meyer, R., E. Meyer, L. Sievanen, and A. Freitag. (2017). Informing Ocean and Coastal management. In J. A. Cigliano & H. L. Ballard (Eds.), Citizen Science for Coastal and Marine Conservation. Routledge (Taylor & Francis).

Parris, A., G. Garfin, K. Dow, R. Meyer, and S.L. Close, editors. (2016). Climate in Context: Science and Society Partnering for Adaptation. John Wiley & Sons. 

Community and Citizen Science at the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Authors: Meyer, R., and Drill, S.
Final project report to UC ANR.

Cigliano, J. A., Meyer, R., Ballard, H. L., Freitag, A., Phillips, T. B., Wasser, A. (2015) Making Marine and Coastal Citizen Science Matter. Ocean and Coastal Management.

Meyer, R., S McAfee, & E. Whiteman. 2015. How California is mobilizing boundary chains to integrate science, policy and management for changing ocean chemistry. Climate Risk Management

Citizen Science and Ocean Resource Management in California: Guidance for forming productive partnerships. California Ocean Science Trust, CA, USA. August, 2014.

Meyer, R. 2012. Finding the true value of US climate science. Nature. 482(7384): 133.

Meyer, R. 2012. Uncertainty as a Science Policy Problem. Climatic Change. 110(1):1-2 DOI: 10.1007/s10584-011-0050-8

Meyer, R.M., Leith, P.B. 2011. Reward Research That Informs Policy. Nature 474, 450.

Meyer, R. 2011. The Public Values Failures of Climate Science in the US. Minerva. 40: 47-70.

Pirtle, Z., R. Meyer, A.L. Hamilton. 2010. What Does It Mean When Climate Models Agree? A Case for Assessing Independence Among General Circulation Models. Environmental Science and Policy. 13: 351-361. 

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