World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!

D-Index & Metrics

Ecology and Evolution

D-Index
92
Citations
102452
World Ranking
407
National Ranking
35

Overview

Will Steffen was affiliated with the Australian National University in Australia. Their research primarily focused on environmental science, with significant contributions to subfields such as Global and Planetary Change, Atmospheric Science, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment, Sociology and Political Science, and Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis.

The main topics covered in their work included:

  • Ecosystem dynamics and resilience
  • Global Energy and Sustainability Research
  • Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics
  • Climate Change and Health Impacts
  • Earth Systems and Cosmic Evolution
  • Climate variability and models
  • Geology and Paleoclimatology Research

Steffen published in various scholarly venues, with frequent publications in:

  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • Nature Reviews Earth & Environment
  • AMBIO
  • Communications Earth & Environment
  • Science Advances

They also contributed to book publications, notably with Cambridge University Press for the book Altered Earth in 2022.

Some of Steffen's recent papers included:

  • Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries, 2023, Science Advances
  • Climate Endgame: Exploring catastrophic climate change scenarios, 2022, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • Our future in the Anthropocene biosphere, 2021, AMBIO
  • The emergence and evolution of Earth System Science, 2020, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment
  • A planetary boundary for green water, 2022, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment

The scientist collaborated frequently with the following coauthors:

  • Johan Rockström
  • Jan Zalasiewicz
  • Hans Joachim Schellnhuber
  • Timothy M. Lenton
  • Mark Williams

Best Publications

  • A safe operating space for humanity

    Johan Rockström;Johan Rockström;Will Steffen;Will Steffen;Kevin Noone;Åsa Persson;Åsa Persson

  • Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet

    Will Steffen;Will Steffen;Katherine Richardson;Johan Rockström;Sarah E. Cornell

  • Planetary boundaries: Exploring the safe operating space for humanity

    Johan Rockström;Johan Rockström;Will Steffen;Will Steffen;Kevin Noone;Åsa Persson;Åsa Persson

  • The causes of land-use and land-cover change: moving beyond the myths

    Eric F. Lambin;B.L. Turner;Helmut J. Geist;Samuel B. Agbola

  • The Anthropocene: are humans now overwhelming the great forces of Nature?

    Will Steffen;Paul J. Crutzen;John R. McNeill

  • The trajectory of the Anthropocene: The Great Acceleration

    Will Steffen;Will Steffen;Wendy J Broadgate;Lisa Deutsch;Owen Gaffney

  • Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene.

    Will Steffen;Johan Rockström;Katherine Richardson;Timothy M. Lenton

  • Policy: Sustainable development goals for people and planet.

    David John Griggs;Mark Stafford-Smith;Owen Gaffney;Johan Rockstrom

  • The Anthropocene: conceptual and historical perspectives

    Will Steffen;Jacques Grinevald;Paul J Crutzen;John R McNeill

  • The Global Carbon Cycle: A Test of Our Knowledge of Earth as a System

    P. Falkowski;R. J. Scholes;E. Boyle;J. Canadell

  • The Anthropocene is functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene

    Colin N. Waters;Jan Zalasiewicz;Colin Summerhayes;Anthony D. Barnosky

  • Global Change and the Earth System: A Planet Under Pressure

    Will Steffen;Peter Tyson

  • The Anthropocene: From Global Change to Planetary Stewardship

    Will Steffen;Will Steffen;Asa Persson;Asa Persson;Lisa Deutsch;J Zalasiewicz

  • Climate tipping points — too risky to bet against

    Timothy M. Lenton;Johan Rockström;Owen Gaffney;Stefan Rahmstorf

  • Recent patterns and mechanisms of carbon exchange by terrestrial ecosystems

    D. S. Schimel;J. I. House;K. A. Hibbard;P. Bousquet

  • The new world of the Anthropocene

    Jan Zalasiewicz;Mark Williams;Will Steffen;Paul Crutzen

  • Ecosystem stewardship: sustainability strategies for a rapidly changing planet

    F. Stuart Chapin;Stephen R. Carpenter;Gary P. Kofinas;Carl Folke;Carl Folke

  • When did the Anthropocene begin? A mid-twentieth century boundary level is stratigraphically optimal

    Jan Zalasiewicz;Colin N. Waters;Mark Williams;Anthony D. Barnosky

  • Reconnecting to the Biosphere

    Carl Folke;Carl Folke;Åsa Jansson;Åsa Jansson;Johan Rockström;Johan Rockström;Per Olsson

  • Our future in the Anthropocene biosphere.

    Carl Folke;Carl Folke;Stephen Polasky;Johan Rockström;Victor Galaz

  • The Terrestrial Carbon Cycle : Implications for the Kyoto Protocol

    Will Steffen;Ian Noble;Josep Canadell

Frequent Co-Authors

Johan Rockström
Johan Rockström Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
Lesley Hughes
Lesley Hughes Macquarie University
Carl Folke
Carl Folke Stockholm University
Jan Zalasiewicz
Jan Zalasiewicz University of Leicester
Colin N. Waters
Colin N. Waters University of Leicester
Mark Williams
Mark Williams University of Leicester
Brian Walker
Brian Walker Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
Paul J. Crutzen
Paul J. Crutzen Max Planck Institute for Chemistry
Katherine Richardson
Katherine Richardson University of Copenhagen
Alejandro Cearreta
Alejandro Cearreta University of the Basque Country

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