John M. Doherty

Dr. John M. Doherty is a climate scientist broadly interested in the ways in which science interacts with and informs environmental governance. John first joined ELI in 2022 as a Fellow to provide scientific expertise to the Climate Judiciary Project (CJP). He was retained by the Institute as staff in 2024 and he continues to work on many of ELI’s climate initiatives, including CJP. John’s research interests include the impacts of climate change on litigation domestically and abroad, the role that science plays in climate lawsuits, and how attribution science can contribute to just and effective decision-making around climate change.

John holds a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from the University of Hong Kong, an M.S. in Environmental Science from American University, and a B.A. in Political Theory from American University. For his doctoral research, John investigated the behavior of ocean circulation in the North Atlantic and its relevance to the global climate system on different geological timescales.