Benjamin I. Cook

Research Statement

AI generated · Oct 25, 2026

Benjamin I. Cook's indexed work centers on the mechanisms and projections of drought under climate change, with a particular emphasis on the American Southwest and Central Plains. His most-cited first-author studies project unprecedented 21st century drought risk in these regions and examine global warming and 21st century drying, framing drought as a persistent, warming-driven feature of the coming century rather than a transient anomaly. Related work extends this line into CMIP6-based drought projections and synthesizes climate change and drought from past to future, while a 900-year Mediterranean reconstruction places modern drying in a longer natural-variability context. Beyond these, Cook contributed as a middle author to the attribution of anthropogenic warming in the emerging North American megadrought, a line he also advanced in work on California's 2012–2014 drought, and to studies of land–atmosphere feedbacks that worsen concurrent soil drought and atmospheric aridity. Earlier first-author work used the Dust Bowl as a case of human-induced land degradation amplifying drought, and senior-author contributions addressed irrigation's effects on 20th-century global climate and a Common Era hydroclimate reconstruction. Collaborators on this work include Park Williams and David M. Lawrence. No software, datasets, or patents are indexed beyond these publications.

Most Cited Works

Twenty‐First Century Drought Projections in the CMIP6 Forcing Scenarios

Benjamin I. Cook, Justin Mankin, Kate Marvel, Park Williams, Jason E. Smerdon, Kevin John Anchukaitis

Earth s Future2020

1,043Citations

Irrigation in the Earth system

Sonali McDermid, Mallika Arudi Nocco, Patricia M. Lawston, Jessica Keune, Yadu Nath POKHREL, Meha Jain, Jonas Jägermeyr, Luca Brocca, Christian Massari, Andrew D. Jones, Pouya Vahmani,

Research Areas

Climate variability and modelsHydrology and Drought AnalysisGeology and Paleoclimatology ResearchTree-ring climate responsesPlant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamic

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Sources

Research Statement

Most Cited Works

Twenty‐First Century Drought Projections in the CMIP6 Forcing Scenarios

Irrigation in the Earth system

Research Areas

Unprecedented Drought Challenges for Texas Water Resources in a Changing Climate: What Do Researchers and Stakeholders Need to Know?

Future Climate Change Under SSP Emission Scenarios With GISS‐E2.1

The 2016 Southeastern U.S. Drought: An Extreme Departure From Centennial Wetting and Cooling