Expert historical and scientific analysis for climate and environmental litigation

Grenville Science brings together historians of science, scientists, and journalists who study what industries knew about the hazards of their products, when they knew it, and how they shaped the science. Its members have testified at trial and before the U.S. Congress, and have written amicus briefs filed in the Supreme Court and the federal courts of appeals.

People

Naomi Oreskes

Harvard University

Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences. A geologist by training and author of Merchants of Doubt, she has testified before the U.S. Congress ten times and served as an expert witness at trial.

Full biography

Naomi Oreskes is the Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. She is an internationally renowned earth scientist, historian, author, and public intellectual.

She received a BSc in mining geology from the Royal School of Mines at Imperial College London and an interdisciplinary PhD in geological research and the history of science from Stanford University. She worked as an exploration geologist in the Australian outback and spent fifteen years at the University of California, San Diego, before joining the Harvard faculty in 2013. Her books on the history of earth and environmental science include the best-selling Merchants of Doubt (2010), made into a documentary film by Participant Media, and Science on a Mission: How Military Funding Shaped What We Do and Don’t Know about the Ocean (2021), awarded the Suppes Prize by the American Philosophical Society.

She is widely recognized for her work on the history of earth science, the development of the scientific consensus on climate change, and the history of corporate resistance and deception related to the reality and impacts of climate change. Her honors include fellowship in the American Geophysical Union, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; a 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship; the 2019 British Academy Medal; the 2024 Nonino Foundation “Master of Our Time” prize; and the 2025 Volvo Environment Prize. Her publications have been cited more than 45,900 times and translated into more than a dozen languages, and her 2014 TED talk, “Why We Should Trust Scientists,” has been viewed more than 1.7 million times.

She has served as an expert witness in several cases, has testified before the U.S. Congress on ten occasions, and has been an author or signatory of ten amicus curiae briefs.

Personal page CV (PDF, Sept 2026)
Nina Elkadi

University of Iowa

Journalist covering agriculture, climate, and corporate influence on science, with work in Politico Magazine, National Geographic, and Inside Climate News. A Harvard graduate in the history of science, she wrote her senior thesis on what American farmers knew about the harms of DDT. She is an Iowa Arts Fellow in the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing Program.

Personal page
Alexander Kaurov

Blue Marble Space

An astrophysicist by training (PhD, University of Chicago; Institute for Advanced Study), now a PhD candidate in Science in Society at Victoria University of Wellington. He uses computational methods to trace industry influence on regulatory science. Co-editor of Reckoning Science.

Personal page
Colleen Lanier‑Christensen

Harvard University

Historian of science and environmental health. Her research traces how chemical toxicity-testing standards were made, from the 1970s to the present, and who shaped them. She holds a PhD in the History of Science from Harvard, where she is a postdoctoral fellow, and an MPH from Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health.

Personal page

Cases & expert testimony

Expert witness at trial

2024
Mann v. National Review, Inc., et al.

Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Testified for the plaintiff, climate scientist Michael E. Mann, on peer review and scientific practice; deposed October 2020, testified at trial January 22, 2024.
- Trial coverage, DeSmog
2013
Eastman Chemical Co. v. PlastiPure, Inc. and CertiChem, Inc.

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, No. 1:12-cv-00057. Expert witness for the defendants; jury trial, July 2013.
- Trial witness list (PDF)
- Docket

U.S. Congress Hearings, briefings & forums

2023
“Dollars and Degrees: Investigating Fossil Fuel Dark Money’s Systemic Threats to Climate and the Federal Budget”

U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget. Written and oral testimony, June 21, 2023.
2022

“Climate Disinformation and Online Transparency”

U.S. House of Representatives staff briefing, sponsored by Rep. Lori Trahan. July 11, 2022.
2019
“Dark Money and Barriers to Climate Action”

Senate Democrats’ Special Committee on the Climate Crisis. October 29, 2019.
2019
“Examining the Oil Industry’s Efforts to Suppress the Truth about Climate Change”

U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform, Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. October 23, 2019.
2017

“Climate Science: Assumptions, Policy Implications, and the Scientific Method”

U.S. House of Representatives. Written testimony in rebuttal to hearing witnesses, requested and submitted by Rep. Donald S. Beyer Jr. April 11, 2017.
2016

Senate Democratic Policy and Communications Center

U.S. Senate luncheon briefing, Lyndon B. Johnson Room, the Capitol. June 23, 2016.
2016

Forum on the Fossil Fuel Industry Disinformation Campaign

U.S. House Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition. June 22, 2016.
2015
“Zero Accountability: The Consequences of Politically Driven Science”

U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. April 29, 2015.
2014

Bicameral Task Force on Climate Change

Convened by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. Henry Waxman. September 18, 2014.
2006
“Examining Climate Change and the Media”

U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. December 6, 2006.
- Transcript

Other legislative & regulatory testimony

2012

Special Committee on Climate Change and Sustainable Development

Belgian House of Representatives. June 29, 2012.
1999

“Developing a Repository Safety Strategy with Special Attention to Model Validation”

U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board. September 14, 1999.

Amicus briefs

Briefs of amici curiae Authored or signed by Naomi Oreskes

2026
Suncor Energy (U.S.A.) Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County

Supreme Court of the United States, No. 25-170. Filed August 3, 2026, in support of respondents. Amici: Naomi Oreskes, Robert Brulle, Benjamin Franta, Stephan Lewandowsky, J. Timmons Roberts, Geoffrey Supran, and the Union of Concerned Scientists.
- Brief (PDF)
- Docket
2026
Monsanto Co. v. Durnell

Supreme Court of the United States, No. 24-1068. Brief of amici curiae Naomi Oreskes and Alexander A. Kaurov in support of respondent, filed April 1, 2026. Draws on their research on the ghostwritten glyphosate review.
- Brief (PDF)
- Docket
2022
State of Delaware v. BP America Inc., et al.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, No. 22-1096. Filed April 21, 2022, in support of Delaware. Amici: Naomi Oreskes, Robert Brulle, the Center for Climate Integrity, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Justin Farrell, Benjamin Franta, Stephan Lewandowsky, Geoffrey Supran, and the Union of Concerned Scientists.
- Brief (PDF)
- Climate Case Chart
2021
City and County of Honolulu v. Sunoco LP, et al.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 21-15313. Filed September 24, 2021, in support of Honolulu. Amici: Naomi Oreskes, Robert Brulle, Benjamin Franta, Stephan Lewandowsky, Geoffrey Supran, and other researchers and organizations.
- Brief (PDF)
2021
Mayor and City Council of Baltimore v. BP p.l.c., et al.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, No. 19-1644, on remand. Filed September 14, 2021, in support of Baltimore. Amici: Naomi Oreskes, Robert Brulle, the Center for Climate Integrity, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Benjamin Franta, Stephan Lewandowsky, Geoffrey Supran, and the Union of Concerned Scientists.
- Brief (PDF)
- Climate Case Chart
2021
State of Minnesota v. American Petroleum Institute, et al.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, No. 21-1752. Filed August 26, 2021, in support of Minnesota. Amici: Naomi Oreskes, Robert Brulle, the Center for Climate Integrity, Justin Farrell, Benjamin Franta, Fresh Energy, Stephan Lewandowsky, MN350, the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, Geoffrey Supran, and the Union of Concerned Scientists.
- Brief (PDF)
- Climate Case Chart
2019
Mayor and City Council of Baltimore v. BP p.l.c., et al.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, No. 19-1644. Filed September 3, 2019, in support of Baltimore. Amici: Naomi Oreskes, Robert Brulle, the Center for Climate Integrity, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Justin Farrell, Benjamin Franta, Stephan Lewandowsky, Geoffrey Supran, and the Union of Concerned Scientists.
- Brief (PDF)
- Climate Case Chart
2019
City of Oakland and City and County of San Francisco v. BP p.l.c., et al.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 18-16663. Filed March 20, 2019, in support of the cities. Amici: Naomi Oreskes, Robert Brulle, the Center for Climate Integrity, Justin Farrell, Benjamin Franta, Stephan Lewandowsky, Geoffrey Supran, and the Union of Concerned Scientists.
- Brief (PDF)
- Climate Case Chart
2019
County of San Mateo, et al. v. Chevron Corp., et al.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 18-15499 (consolidated). Filed January 29, 2019, in support of the California counties and cities. Amici: Naomi Oreskes, Robert Brulle, the Center for Climate Integrity, Justin Farrell, Benjamin Franta, Stephan Lewandowsky, and Geoffrey Supran.
- Brief (PDF)
- Climate Case Chart

Publications

Selected academic publications

2026
From agricultural chemistry to toxicology: the AOAC and the politics of validation

Lanier-Christensen · BJHS Themes, 1–18. Open access.
- doi:10.1017/bjt.2026.10031
2025
The afterlife of a ghost-written paper: How corporate authorship shaped two decades of glyphosate safety discourse

Kaurov & Oreskes · Environmental Science & Policy 171, 104160. The ghostwritten review it examines (Williams, Kroes & Munro, 2000) was retracted in December 2025.
- doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104160
- The retracted review
2023
Climate Change and the Clean Air Act of 1970, Part I: The Scientific Basis

Oreskes, Lanier-Christensen, Conway & Macfarlane · Ecology Law Quarterly 50(3), 811–890.
- doi:10.15779/Z38DV1CP99
- PDF
2023
Assessing ExxonMobil’s global warming projections

Supran, Rahmstorf & Oreskes · Science 379(6628), eabk0063.
- doi:10.1126/science.abk0063
2021
Creating Regulatory Harmony: The Participatory Politics of OECD Chemical Testing Standards in the Making

Lanier-Christensen · Science, Technology, & Human Values 46(5), 925–952.
- doi:10.1177/01622439211029369
2017
Assessing ExxonMobil’s climate change communications (1977–2014)

Supran & Oreskes · Environmental Research Letters 12(8), 084019.
- doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa815f

Books

2023
The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market

Oreskes & Conway · Bloomsbury.
- Publisher
2021
Science on a Mission: How Military Funding Shaped What We Do and Don’t Know about the Ocean

Oreskes · University of Chicago Press. Patrick Suppes Prize, American Philosophical Society.
- Publisher
2019
Why Trust Science?

Oreskes · Princeton University Press.
- Publisher
2010
Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming

Oreskes & Conway · Bloomsbury. Adapted as a documentary film by Participant Media.
- Book site

Essays & reporting

2026
“Cancer Doesn’t Care What Party You Belong To”: Poisoned Water Is Turning This Rural State Bluer

Elkadi · Politico Magazine, July 19, 2026.
- Read at Politico
2026
Imported Science: How Compromised American Science Underwrites New Zealand’s Regulation

Kaurov · Reckoning Science, July 8, 2026.
- Read at Reckoning Science
2026
Managing the Pitfalls of Private Money

Oreskes · Science, Expert Voices, June 18, 2026.
- Read at Science
2026
Of Mice and Men and Round Numbers

Kaurov, Khramtsova & Oreskes · Reckoning Science, June 12, 2026. On the origins of toxicology’s hundredfold safety factor.
- Read at Reckoning Science
2026
The Editorial that Defends a Ghostwritten Paper by Citing Additional Ghostwritten Papers

Kaurov, MacLean & Oreskes · Reckoning Science, April 24, 2026.
- Read at Reckoning Science
2026
Private Money Cannot Replace Public Funding of Science

Oreskes · Science, Expert Voices, February 26, 2026.
- Read at Science
2025
Cleaning the Scientific House: Rebuilding Trust in Science Requires Confronting the Harms of Ghostwriting

Oreskes · Science, Expert Voices, October 30, 2025.
- Read at Science
2025
The Impact of a Ghostwritten Paper on the Fate of Glyphosate

Kaurov & Oreskes · Undark, August 15, 2025.
- Read at Undark
2025
The Beef Industry Knew Its Climate Impact as Early as 1989—and Worked to Obfuscate the Science

Elkadi · Sentient, March 24, 2025.
- Read at Sentient

Video

Congressional testimony Her testimony and exchanges with members, edited from the full hearings

Senate Committee on the Budget“Dollars and Degrees” · June 21, 2023 · 24 min

Senate Democrats’ Special Committee on the Climate Crisis“Dark Money and Barriers to Climate Action” · October 29, 2019 · 23 min

House Committee on Natural Resources“Zero Accountability” · April 29, 2015 · 13 min

Contact

For enquiries, email contact@grenvillescience.com.