Dalia B. Kirschbaum

Dalia B. Kirschbaum is an Earth scientist specializing in hydrology and natural hazards.

Education and career Kirschbaum earned an A.B. in Geosciences from Princeton University in 2004, focusing on environmental policy. She completed her M.A. (2006) and M.Phil. (2007) in Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University, where her doctoral research assessed multiscale landslide hazard and risk assessments. She received her Ph.D. in 2009 under the supervision of Arthur Lerner-Lam.

Kirschbaum joined the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in 2011 as a research scientist. In 2022 she took the position of director of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Earth Sciences Division.

Research Her work integrates satellite remote sensing with hazard modeling to improve predictions of rainfall-triggered landslides. She developed the Global Landslide Hazard Forecasting System and initiated the Global Landslide Catalog, providing accessible global data for landslide risks.

Kirschbaum’s research primarily focuses on rainfall-triggered landslides. Her work integrates remote sensing data with hazard modeling to improve the accuracy of regional and global landslide assessments. She led the development of a global landslide hazard forecasting system and the Global Landslide Catalog, a publicly accessible database that compiles landslide reports from around the world. These efforts have significantly advanced situational awareness and risk mitigation strategies for landslide-prone regions. In 2022 she received the NOAA David Johnson Award for her work on landslide data. In 2023 Kirschbaun received the Joanne Simpson Medal and was named a Union Fellow by the American Geophysical Union.

Selected publications