Watson, Harlan L.

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Harlan L. Watson
Senior Climate Negotiator and Special Representative
Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs

Dr. Harlan L. Watson is Senior Climate Negotiator and Special Representative at the U.S. Department of State. In this capacity, he has served as alternate head of the U.S. delegations at the 7^th through 10^th Sessions of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as head of the U.S. delegations at the 15^th through 21^st Sessions of the Subsidiary Bodies to the UNFCCC, and as head of the U.S. delegations at the 19^th through 22^nd Sessions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Dr. Watson also heads the National Security Council Policy Coordination Committee (NSC/PCC) Working Group on Climate Change.

Dr. Watson joined the Department of State’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs in September 2001. He previously served for more than 16 years on the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Science, including over six years as Staff Director of the Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy and the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment.

Dr. Watson’s further U.S. Government experience includes serving as Science Advisor to Secretary of the Interior, and as Principal Deputy and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior for Water and Science. He was a professional staff member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, Subcommittee on Energy, Nuclear Proliferation, and Federal Services. He also worked as a technical staff member at TRW Inc., as a project and senior scientist at B-K Dynamics, Inc., and as a postdoctoral appointee at Argonne National Laboratory.

Dr. Watson earned a B.A. in physics from Western Illinois University, a Ph.D. in solid state physics from Iowa State University, and an M.A. in Economics from Georgetown University.

Released April 4, 2005