SCOTT JANZWOOD
Research Director
Dr. Scott Janzwood is the Research Director at the Cascade Institute. He leads the development and management of the Cascade Institute's research projects. Scott's own research focuses on how scientists and policymakers collaborate to address global catastrophic risks such as climate change, pandemics, and other emerging threats. He also studies strategies and tools that we can use to make better decisions under deep uncertainty.
His doctoral research focused on the issues of R&D prioritization and uncertainty communication in climate change and planetary defense governance. He has also contributed to projects on improving foresight programs in the public sector. Scott has a PhD in Global Governance from the University of Waterloo.
Scott’s approach to understanding the interactions between science and policy is grounded in complex systems theory and has been shaped by his work with the Complexity Working Group (CWG) at the University of Waterloo and the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation (WICI). He has also designed and taught an introductory undergraduate course on complex systems. Previously, Scott was a Visiting Researcher at the Future of Humanity Institute (FHI) at the University of Oxford.
Recent Research
Earth’s polycrisis is no mere illusion September 16, 2022
What is a global polycrisis? September 16, 2022
Confidence deficits and reducibility: Toward a coherent conceptualization of uncertainty level Risk Analysis, August 2022
Levelling up: The next phase of youth climate action in Canada January 31, 2022
R&D priority-setting for global catastrophic risks: The case of the NASA planetary defense mission Research Policy 50(6), July 2021
Behind the mask: Anti-mask and pro-mask attitudes in North America September 15, 2020
Colliding crises can’t be handled with one-track solutions
The Globe and Mail, August 27, 2020



Confident, likely, or both? The implementation of the uncertainty language framework in IPCC special reports Climatic Change 162, May 23, 2020
Complex systems approaches to global politics Oxford Bibliographies, February 26, 2020
"Mainstreaming" foresight program development in the public sector Foresight, September 5, 2019