Rate My Professor Kristin Timm

Kristin Timm is a Research Assistant Professor at the International Arctic Research Center and University Co-Director of the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. As an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Communication and Journalism, she specializes in science and environmental communication, investigating the messengers, messages, and processes that facilitate understanding and action on complex environmental challenges such as climate change. Timm utilizes surveys and interviews to explore how people think, feel, and respond to diverse information sources, with a focus on generating actionable science through co-production of knowledge at the science-society interface. Her leadership supports interdisciplinary, decision-relevant research for climate adaptation across Alaska, including initiatives with the Scenarios Network for Alaska and Arctic Planning.

Timm holds a PhD in Communication from George Mason University (2021), where her dissertation examined communication related to the Fourth National Climate Assessment while working with the Center for Climate Change Communication. She earned a master’s degree in Science Communication and a bachelor’s degree in Rural Development and Natural Resource Management from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Beginning her career at UAF as a graduate student research assistant, she progressed through roles as Science Communicator, Science Communication Lead, postdoctoral researcher, and co-investigator before assuming her current positions. Named a faculty fellow in the Honors College Climate Scholars Program in 2020, Timm provides national leadership in science-society engagement, serving on the American Geophysical Union’s Science and Society section and contributing to National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine studies. She has received the U.S. Geological Survey Eugene M. Shoemaker Communication Award (2016) for the poster “From Icefield to Ocean” and Popular Science’s Vizzie Award (2015) for poster design. Key publications include “Icefield-to-ocean linkages across the northern Pacific coastal temperate rainforest ecosystem” (BioScience, 2015), “The growth and disciplinary convergence of environmental communication: A bibliometric analysis of the field (1970–2019)” (Frontiers in Environmental Science, 2022), and “A research agenda for the science of actionable knowledge” (Environmental Science & Policy, 2023). Her contributions enhance policy, management, and community responses to climate impacts.