Emmi Yonekura

Emmi Yonekura (she/her) is a physical scientist in the Engineering and Applied Sciences Department at the RAND Corporation. Her recent research focuses on climate change impacts on national security and strategic and operational military readiness. Recently, Yonekura was principal investigator for research regarding geopolitical risks of climate geoengineering, training infrastructure for the US Air Force, and US Space Force use of live, virtual and constructive systems. She is currently engaged in several research efforts to assess the impact of climate change on US military installations and mission readiness.

Prior to RAND, Yonekura received her Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from Columbia University with a research focus on risk analysis using climate-dependent statistical models of tropical cyclones. She conducted her postdoctoral research at Princeton University, where she led interdisciplinary teams to explore new statistical modeling techniques for natural hazard risk assessment. Yonekura consulted for the research and development team at Aon Benfield, a reinsurance broker, where she worked on impact forecasting and catastrophe modeling. Yonekura also serves as a peer-review journal reviewer for climate and earth science publications.