Astrid Caldas is a climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, where her research focuses on climate change adaptation with practical policy implications for ecosystems, the economy, and society. Before joining UCS, Dr. Caldas was a Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a climate change and wildlife science fellow at the nonprofit conservation group Defenders of Wildlife, and a research scientist at the University of Maryland. She has advised or consulted on projects with organizations including the Smithsonian Institution and the National SocioEnvironmental Synthesis Center. She has a lifelong passion for butterflies and moths, which she has studied for many years and likes to use as models to raise awareness of climate and land use changes. Dr. Caldas holds a Ph.D. in ecology from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Brazil, a M.S. in entomology from the Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil, and a M.S. in environmental management from the University of Maryland University College. She blogs for The Huffington Post and tweets under the handle @climategeek.