Peter Cowan is a Visiting Fellow with the American Meteorological Society Policy Program in Washington DC. Previously he worked for the California State Senate, initially as a California Council on Science and Technology Policy Fellow and subsequently as a Consultant to the California Senate Committee on Environmental Quality. Among other responsibilities, he analyzed legislation related to climate change, solid waste, and hydraulic fracturing. Peter received his PhD from the University of California Berkeley in 2010, his dissertation focused on plant ecology and evolution in fire-prone regions.