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21 March 2024

Dr Radhika Khosla appointed Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Research Letters

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Dr Radhika Khosla, Associate Professor at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Research Letters, IOP Publishing’s flagship journal for inter-disciplinary environmental research.

“I feel privileged to take on this position at a journal that I have read for so many years, and to follow in the footsteps of my predecessor Dr Daniel Kammen, who has left a fantastic legacy,” says Dr Khosla.

In a statement on their website, IOP Publishing describes how Dr Khosla “brings extensive knowledge on interdisciplinary and multi-country programmes on the future of cooling which examines the unprecedented increase in cooling energy demand and its relationship to the sustainable development goals.”

“As I begin my editorship, I have three priorities,” says Dr Khosla. “The first is to foster even greater collaboration between the physical, natural and social sciences. This stems from my own approach to climate change and energy questions. I believe that working across disciplines is vital, but it is even more important is to do so in a way that honours the true depth of each discipline.”

“Secondly, I would like to foster an academic space in which social justice is always at the forefront of environmental and climate issues, and to encourage submissions from countries that are not often well represented in our research landscape, but who have so much to offer it. 

“Finally, I would support and champion early career researchers who cannot always access a space in which to put their work forward. I would like Environmental Research Letters to help them take their research to the next level.”

Alongside her role at the Oxford Smith School, Dr Khosla is also Research Director of the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development, Somerville College, at the University of Oxford. She is the Programme Leader in Zero Carbon Energy Use at Oxford’s ZERO Institute. 

An urban climatologist by training, Dr Khosla’s work seeks to advance understanding of one of the most fundamental questions of our time: how can societies improve human well-being while preserving and enhancing the environment? Her interdisciplinary research examines the productive tensions between energy consumption trajectories, urban transitions, and climate change governance – in the context of development – that lie at the heart of this global challenge. Her research, and the Oxford Future of Cooling Programme that she leads, has informed government inquiries and UN Reports, while garnering media coverage across the world for its focus on a previously overlooked area of climate mitigation.