The National Academy of Sciences has published research conducted by Columbia graduate student Clara Berestycki, who is in the Sustainable Development Program at the School of International and Public Affairs.
The study, "Behavioral Responses to Wildfire Smoke: Insights from Smartphone Location Data" was published April 27 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences.
Berestycki is a two-time recipient of graduate student grants from the Center for Political Economy, including her project from 2025 that was just published, “Wildfire Smoke Plumes, Time Allocation, and Smartphone Mobility Data.”
Berestycki shared a summary of her study, which is co-authored by M. Keith Chen from UCLA:
"We use individual-level smartphone data to study wildfire smoke adaptation in California,” she said. “We find that the college-educated move indoors more than the rest of the population, and that there are differences between the level of wildfire-induced air pollution at which people move indoors and when smoke becomes toxic. These findings suggest that improving awareness and information provision may be key to curtail wildfire smoke exposure."
Berestycki was also named a recipient of funding by the Center in 2026 for “Cost of Wildfire Smoke: A Revealed Preferences Approach.”
