Sarah Hartman
- SUSTAINABILITY
- WATER
- AGRICULTURE
ABOUT ME
Hi, I’m Sarah, an environmental scientist who designs technology, from simple tools to AI, to help communities manage water, grow food, and lead their own development.
Across a decade of work, from rainwater harvesting in the Philippines to AI-assisted agronomy in Australia, two themes keep recurring:
Resilience under stress
How food and water systems cope with rapid technological change, unsustainable resource use, and geopolitical pressure: from Mexico's berry-greenhouse boom to Ukraine's agricultural resilience during war.
Science into action
Translating remote sensing and AI into decisions real stakeholders act on, and contextualizing science policy, including COP26 water policy and USDA regulation.
I trained as an environmental engineer and have since worked across science and policy, in research, government, and non-profit settings.
Today I'm a Postdoctoral Fellow at CSIRO, Australia's national science agency. I am using skills in trustworthy, responsible artificial intelligence; biophysical crop modelling; stakeholder engagement; and environmental resource change to create applied science solutions in agriculture and resource sustainability.
I have a PhD in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management and a Bachelors in Environmental Engineering. I speak English, French, and Spanish. I am a Truman and Fulbright Scholar, winner of the 2025 Women in AI APAC award in the Agribusiness and Rural Development category, and also a recipient of 3 US National Science Foundation fellowships.
I have a strong commitment to addressing technical issues with an interdisciplinary social and policy lens.
Recognition
- Truman Scholar
- Fulbright Scholar
- 3× US National Science Foundation Fellowships
- 2025 Women in AI APAC Award for Agribusiness and Rural Development
- 2026 Women in Techhnology Emerging Science Star (Highly Commended)
- Science & Technology Policy Fellow, U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine
- Theo Murphy Award, Australian Academy of Science
Where the Work Has Happened
- Philippines
- Mexico
- USA
- Australia
- Ukraine (research focus)
- India (research focus)
- Global (research focus)
EDUCATION
- University of California, Berkeley
PhD. Environmental Science, Policy and Management (2024) - University of Delaware
B.E. Environmental Engineering (2017)
Publications, Presentations & Press
Publications
Most recent
- E. Abebe Kebede, K. Oluoch, S. Siebert, P. Mehta, S. Hartman, J. Jägermeyr, D. Ray, T. Ali, K. Brauman, Q. Deng, W. Xie, K. Frankel Davis. (2025). A global open-source dataset of monthly irrigated and rainfed cropped areas (MIRCA-OS) for the 21st century. Scientific Data. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-04313-w
- S. Hartman, C. S. Ong, J. Powles, P. Kuhnert. (2025). Position: We Need Responsible, Application-Driven (RAD) AI Research.ICML. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3780338.3783617
- S. Hartman, R. Whiteside, A. Smaliychuk, I. Dronova. (2025). Land abandonment as an indicator of Ukrainian agricultural resilience during Russia's war against Ukraine. Applied Geography. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103744
- K. Cullen, S. Hartman, M. Hingst, M. S. Hossain, I. Jorgensen, T. Maurer, N. Mirnasi, S. Solagbade, S. Sherif, M. Sluder. (2025). Sustainable Development Goal 6 in the era of the Paris Agreement: changes and trade-offs in tailoring water challenges to global climate goals. Ecology and Society. https://doi.org/10.5751/es-16218-300316
- A. Bratanova, S. Hajkowicz, D. Evans, H. Chen, S. Bentley, H. Pham, S. Hartman. (2025). Australia's artificial intelligence ecosystem: growth and opportunities. Report, Department of Industry, Science and Resources and CSIRO. ai.gov.au (PDF)
- S. Hartman, K. Trinh, P. Flick, P. Kuhnert. (2025). Shaping the future of artificial intelligence technology development for the Australian agricultural sector. Farm Policy Journal. https://www.farminstitute.org.au/product/fpj2201-hartman-s-2025-shaping-the-future-of-artificial-intelligence-technology-development-for-the-australian-agricultural-sector/
Older
2024
- E. Abebe Kebede, H. Abou Ali, T. Clavelle, H. Froehlich, J. Gephart, S. Hartman, M. Herrero, H. Kerner, P. Mehta, C. Nakalembe, D. Ray, S. Siebert, P. Thornton, Davis K. Frankel Davis. (2024). Assessing and addressing the global state of food production data scarcity. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment. https://www.nature.com/articles/s43017-024-00516-2
- S. Karimzadeh, S. Hartman, D.D. Chiarelli, M.C. Rulli, P. D'Odorico. (2023). The tradeoff between water savings and salinization prevention in dryland irrigation. Advances in Water Resources. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2023.104604
2023
- S. J. Smidt, E. M. K. Haacker, X. Bai, K. Cherkauer, B. Choat, O. Crompton, J. M. Deines, J. Groh, S. M. Guzmán, S. Hartman, A. D. Kendall, M. Safeeq, W. Kustas, B. M. McGill, M. A. Nocco, J. Pensky, J. Rapp, A. Schreiner-Mcgraw, M. Sprenger, L. Wan, L. Weldegebriel, S. Zipper, D. Zoccatelli. (2023). Forming the Future of Agrohydrology. Earth’s Future. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022EF003410
2022
- Hartman, S., Farfán, M., Hoogesteger, J., D’Odorico, P. (2022). Mapping the expansion of berry greenhouses onto Michoacán's ejido lands, México. Environ. Res. Lett. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac9ac8
2021
- Hartman, S., et al. (2021). A growing produce bubble: United States produce tied to Mexico's unsustainable agricultural water use. Environ. Res. Lett. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac286d
2020
- Hartman, S., Horner, W., Jackson, C., Kovak, E., Velan, V. (2020). Policy Memo: Streamlining USDA Regulation of Gene Editing to Benefit US Agriculture. Journal of Science Policy & Governance. *Equal contribution by all. https://doi.org/10.38126/JSPG170108
2019
- Kearns, J., Krupp, A., Hartman, S., Szogas, K., De Boskey, M., Harrington, J. (2019). Evaluation of arsenic field test kits as a learning exercise for engineering students in global water and sanitation class. International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering, Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship. https://doi.org/10.24908/ijsle.v14i1.12528
- Hartman, S. (2019, March 21). Thirsting for water: The challenge for the Philippines. Rappler, Retrieved from http://www.rappler.com (News article)
2018
- Kearns, J., Krupp, A., Diek, E., Mitchell, S., Dossi, S., Hartman, S. (2018). Lead-lag series and staged parallel operational strategies improve the performance and cost effectiveness of bone char for control of fluoride in groundwater. Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development. https://doi.org/10.2166/washdev.2018.111
Presentations
Since 2018 I have given over 25 talks in five countries and three languages, for audiences ranging from geoscientists, machine-learning researchers, and policymakers to berry growers, university students, and the public.
Featured: Feeding the World, Byte by Byte
- Australian Academy of Science (2025): invited talk in the Academy's public series on AI, given at the Shine Dome in Canberra. Watch online.
- ACIAR (2026): invited talk in Canberra on what it means for international agricultural development.
- Upcoming: Feeding the World, Byte by Byte: Bridging Crop Science, AI and Human Perspectives, at MNS University of Agriculture, Pakistan, for Reviving the Sciences in the Age of AI.
Topics
AI and data for agriculture
- How AI can help feed the world, and what that means for development
- Whether farmers want AI, and what a trusted AI agronomist looks like
- The global scarcity of food production data
- Guest lectures on AI in agriculture at the Australian National University (2025, 2026)
Earth observation of land and conflict
- Berry-greenhouse expansion onto Michoacán's ejido lands
- Ukrainian agriculture during the war
- A co-convened AGU session on monitoring the environmental impacts of armed conflict
Water, food trade and climate policy
- Virtual water embedded in Mexico-to-US crop trade
- The sustainability of irrigated agriculture
- How water fits into climate policy after COP26 and the Paris Agreement
Water and sanitation engineering
- Rainwater harvesting for drinking water in Cebu (my Fulbright research)
- Sanitation design
- Stakeholder engagement in Chesapeake Bay restoration
- Local water challenges in San Miguel de Allende
Places, languages & formats
Where
- Canberra, Adelaide & Barossa, Australia
- Michoacán, Guanajuato & Querétaro, Mexico
- California, Delaware & Puerto Rico, USA
- Cebu & Manila, Philippines
- Taipei, Taiwan
- Online
- Pakistan (upcoming)
In
- English
- Español
- Français
Formats
- Conference talks
- Invited talks
- Research seminars
- Guest lectures
- Panels
- Posters
- Session convening
- Stakeholder workshops
- Public talks
Other venues
- Australian Institute for Machine Learning
- Every American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting from 2020 to 2023
- Mexico's National Strawberry Council (CONAFRESA)
- Fulbright East Asia and Pacific regional conference
- Science at Cal, Grounds for Science: watch the talk on the socio-environmental impacts of food trade
Press
- Engineering Change Abroad Alumni Interview. 2018.
- US scholar studies on rain harvesting in Metro Cebu. 2018.
- Nine Win Fulbrights. 2018.
- Water: A Medium for Life, Engineers Without Borders Art Gala Fundraiser. 2017.
- Sarah Hartman Named Truman Scholar. 2016.
- Off-the-grid Eco Vapor Toilet. 2016.
- Radio Interview about Engineers Without Borders, University of Delaware projects. 2015.
Contact Me
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