Seth B.C. Shonkoff, PhD, MPH

Dr. Seth Shonkoff has led the energy science and policy research institute, PSE Healthy Energy as its first executive director since 2012. Dr. Shonkoff is also an associate researcher in the Environmental Health Sciences Division of the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley and an affiliate in the Energy Technologies Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. An environmental and public health scientist by training, he has more than 20 years of experience in water, air, climate, and population health research at the energy interface and has published more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and reports. Dr. Shonkoff is a widely recognized expert on the human health and climate dimensions of oil and gas systems. He has testified before congress and other decision-making bodies and has led and co-authored multiple high-profile scientific assessments. His work includes the Human Health chapter of The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) and legislated evaluations of oil and gas development, hydraulic fracturing, produced water management and reuse and underground gas storage facilities in the State of California. Dr. Shonkoff sits on a number of science-policy expert panels.

Dr. Shonkoff completed his PhD in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management and his MPH in epidemiology in the School of Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley.

Selected Publications:

• DiGiulio, D. C., Rossi, R. J., Jaeger, J. M., Shonkoff, S. B.C., and Ryan, J. N. (2021). Vulnerability of Groundwater Resources Underlying Unlined Produced Water Ponds in the Tulare Basin of the San Joaquin Valley, California. Environmental Science & Technology.
• Hill, L. L., Blythe, R., Krieger E. M., Smith, A., Shonkoff S. B.C. (2020).The Public Health Dimensions of California Wildfire Prevention, Mitigation and Suppression. PSE Healthy Energy.
• Shonkoff S. B.C., Hill, L. L. (2020). Analysis of air quality data near well stimulation treatments in California: implications for human health. A report prepared for the California Air Resources Board by PSE Healthy Energy.
• Hill, L. L., Banan, Z., Shonkoff, S. B.C. (2020). Contextualizing Quantitative Optical Gas Imaging Samples of Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Activities in Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. PSE Healthy Energy.
• Hill, L. L. and Shonkoff S. B.C. (2020). The Environmental Health Dimensions of Oil and Gas Development in Planetary Health: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves. (Samuel Myers and Howard Frumkin, Eds). Island Press.
• Hill, L. L., Czolowski, E., DiGiulio., D. C., Shonkoff S. B.C. (2019). Temporal and Spatial Trends of Oil and Gas Waste Disposal in Pennsylvania, 1991 – 2017. Science of The Total Environment.
• Garcia-Gonzales, D., Shonkoff S. B.C., Hays, J., Jerrett, M. (2019). Hazardous Air Pollutants Associated with Upstream Oil and Natural Gas Development: A Critical Synthesis of Current Peer-Reviewed Literature. Annual Reviews of Public Health, 40:283-304.
• DiGiulio, D. C., Shonkoff, S. B.C., Jackson, R. B. (2018). The Need to Protect Fresh and Brackish Groundwater Resources During Unconventional Oil and Gas Development. Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health. (3:1-7).
• Shonkoff, S. B.C., Hill, L. L., Czolowski, E. D., Prasad, K., Hammond, S. K., McKone, T. E. (2017). Long-Term Viability of Underground Gas Storage in California: Human Health Hazards, Risks, and Impacts Associated with Underground Natural Gas Storage in California. California Council on Science and Technology.
• Czolowski, E., Santoro, R. L., Srebotnjak, T., Shonkoff, S. B.C. (2017).Toward Consistent Methodology to Quantify Populations in Proximity to Oil and Gas Development: A National Spatial Analysis and Review. Environmental Health Perspectives. 
• DiGiulio, D., Shonkoff, S. B.C. (2017). Is Reuse of Produced Water Safe? First, Let’s Find out What’s In It. EM Magazine, a copyrighted publication of the Air & Waste Management Association.
• Stringfellow, W. T., Camarillo, M. K., Domen, J. K., Shonkoff, S. B.C. (2017). Comparison of Chemical-Use Between Hydraulic Fracturing, Acidizing, and Routine Oil and Gas Development. PLOS ONE, 12(4): e0175344. 
• Shonkoff, S. B.C., Hays, J., Hill, L. L., Krieger, E. M., Hughes, D., Hosang, N., Law, A. (2016). Trump: Renewables for Self-Sufficiency. Nature, 540:341.
• Hays, J., McCaulley, M., Shonkoff, S. B.C. (2016) Public Health Implications of Environmental Noise Associated with Unconventional Oil and Gas Development. Science of The Total Environment.
• Shonkoff, S. B.C., Domen, J. K., Stringfellow, W. T. (2016). Hazard Assessment of Chemical Additives Used in Oil Fields that Reuse Produced Water for Agricultural Irrigation, Livestock Watering, and Groundwater Recharge in The San Joaquin Valley of California: Preliminary Results. PSE Healthy Energy.
• Krieger, E., Casey J., Shonkoff, S. B.C. (2016). A Framework for Siting and Dispatch of Emerging Energy Resources to Realize Environmental and Health Benefits: Case Study on Peaker Power Plant Displacement. Energy Policy.
• Krieger, E. M., McPhail, A., Millstein, D., Shehabi, A., Czolowski, E., Hays, J., Casey, J., Shonkoff, S. B.C. (2016). The Clean Power Plan in Pennsylvania: Analyzing Power Generation for Health and Equity. PSE Healthy Energy Report, 2016. 
• Krieger, E. M., McPhail, A., Millstein, D., Shehabi, A., Czolowski, E., Hays, J., Casey, J., Shonkoff, S. B.C. The Clean Power Plan in Ohio: Analyzing Power Generation for Health and Equity. PSE Healthy Energy Report. 
• Hays, J., Shonkoff, S. B.C. (2016). Toward an Understanding of the Environmental and Public Health Impacts of Unconventional Natural Gas Development: A Categorical Assessment of the Peer-Reviewed Scientific Literature, 2009-2015. PLOS ONE.
• Santoro, R. L., Wells, M. T., Ingraffea, A. R., Edelstein, K., Shonkoff, S. B.C. Under Review. Explaining Spatial Variability in Wellbore Impairment Risk for Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Wells, 2000-2014.
• Crane, C. M., English, P., Heller, J., Kirsch, J., Kuiper, H., Kyle, A. D., Ostro, B., Rudolph, L., Shonkoff, S. B.C. (2016). An Assessment of the Health and Safety Implications of Coal Transport through Oakland. Public Health Advisory Panel on Coal, Oakland, CA.
• Czolowski, E., Hays, J., Shonkoff, S. B.C. Under Review. A Geospatial Analysis of Distances Between Producing Unconventional Natural Gas Wells and Places Children Live, Play, and Learn in Pennsylvania, USA.
• Garcia-Gonzales, D. A., Shonkoff S. B.C. (2016). Hazardous Air Pollutants from Oil and Gas Development in the United States: A Systematic Review of the Peer-Reviewed Literature from 2012-2015. A Report Submitted to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. 
• Shonkoff, S. B.C., Maddalena, R. L., Hays, J., Stringfellow, W., Wettstein, Z. S., Harrison, R., Sandelin, W., McKone, T. E. (2015). Potential Impacts of Well Stimulation on Human Health in California. Chapter six of An Independent Scientific Assessment of Well Stimulation in California, published by the California Council on Science and Technology.
• Shonkoff, S. B.C., Jordan, P., Brandt, A., Ferrar, K., Maddalena, R. L., Greenfield, B. K., Jerrett, M., Heberger, M., McKone, T. E. (2015). A Case Study of the Petroleum Geological Potential and Potential Public Health Risks Associated with Hydraulic Fracturing and Oil and Gas Development in The Los Angeles Basin. Chapter four of An Independent Scientific Assessment of Well Stimulation in California, published by the California Council on Science and Technology.
• Hays, J., Finkel, M., Depledge, M., Law, A., Shonkoff, S. B.C. (2015). Considerations for the Development of Shale Gas in the United Kingdom. Science of The Total Environment, 512-513: 36-42. 
• Ingraffea, A., Wells, M., Santoro, R., Shonkoff, S. B.C. (2014). Assessment and Risk Analysis of Casing and Cement Impairment in Oil and Gas Wells In Pennsylvania: 2000-2012. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science,111 (30): 10955-10960.
• Shonkoff, S. B.C., Hays, J., Finkel, M. F. (2014). The Public Health Dimensions of Shale Gas Development. Environmental Health Perspectives. 122 (8): 787-795.
• Law, A., Hays, J., Shonkoff, S. B.C., Finkel, M.L. (2014). Public Health England’s reply to editorial on its draft report on shale gas extraction. BMJ, 348:g3280.
• Law, A., Hays, J., Shonkoff, S. B.C., Finkel, M.L. Re: Public Health England’s Draft Report on Shale Gas Extraction: Mistaking Best Practices for Actual Practices. BMJ, 348:g2728, 2014.
• Smith, K. R., et al. Shonkoff, S. B.C. (2013). Contributing author Chapter 11: Human Health: Impacts, Adaptation, and Co-Benefits. In Assessment Report 5. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
• Shonkoff, S. B.C. (2013). Shale gas and tight oil development: look before we leap. Global Energy Affairs. Available at: http://globalenergyinitiative.org/insights/103-shale-gas-tight-oil-development.html
• Shonkoff, S. B.C. (2012). The Frack Gap: well density, environmental and health protections, and socioeconomic status in the United States. A Whitepaper.
• Shonkoff, S. B.C., Morello-Frosch, R., Pastor, M., Sadd, J. (2011). The Climate Gap: Environmental Health and Equity Implications of Climate Change and Mitigation Policies in California–A Review of the Literature. Climatic Change, volume 109, 485–503.
• Jerrett, M., Su, J. G., Ortega Hinojosa, O. M., Kontgis, C., Shonkoff, S. B.C., Yuen, T., Seto, E., Jesdale, B., Morello-Frosch, R. (2012). Mapping Climate Change Exposures, Vulnerabilities and Adaptation to Public Health Risks in the San Francisco Bay and Fresno Regions. A Report for The California Energy Commission. Available at: https://www.energy.ca.gov/2012publications/CEC-500-2012-041/CEC-500-2012-041.pdf
• Shonkoff, S. B.C., Chafe, Z., Smith, K. R. (2010). Addressing Inconsistencies in Black Carbon Literature. Poster presented at the American Geophysical Union. Session Title: Black Carbon’s Role in Global to Local Air Quality and Climate Change.
• Smith, K. R., Jerrett, M., Anderson, H. R., Burnett, R. T., Stone, V., Derwent, R., Atkinson, R. W., Cohen, A., Shonkoff, S. B.C., Krewski, D., Pope, C. A., 3rd, Thun, M. J., Thurston, G. (2009). Public Health Benefits of Strategies to Reduce Greenhouse-Gas Emissions: Health Implications of Short-Lived Greenhouse Pollutants. The Lancet, 374(9707): 2091-2103.
• Shonkoff S. B.C., Morello-Frosch R., Pastor M., Sadd, J. (2009). Minding the Climate Gap: Implications of Environmental Health Inequities for Mitigation Policies in California.  Environmental Justice, 2(4): 173-177.
• Morello-Frosch, R., Pastor, M., Sadd, J., Shonkoff, S. B.C. (2009). The Climate Gap: Inequalities in How Climate Change Hurts Americans & How to Close the Gap. The Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE). University of Southern California.
• Shonkoff, S. B.C., Morello-Frosch, R., Pastor, M., Sadd, J. (2009). Environmental Health and Equity Impacts from  Climate Change and Mitigation Policies in California: A Review of the Literature.” In: Cal-EPA Climate Action Team Report. Available at: http: www.climatechange.ca.govpublicationscatindex.html