James Stephen Famiglietti, known professionally as Jay Famiglietti, is a renowned professor, hydrologist, and climate science communicator. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, to Alfonse, a mechanical engineer, and Dorothy, a bookkeeper, Jay was raised in Cranston, Rhode Island, where he graduated from Cranston High School West. He has an older sibling, a brother named Bruce, who still resides in the state.
Jay's academic journey took him to Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, where he majored in Geology. His passion for the outdoors led him to pursue graduate degrees in hydrology from the University of Arizona and Princeton University. At Princeton, he met his wife, Catherine Keane.
Throughout his academic career, Jay held faculty positions at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of California, Irvine, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, the University of Saskatchewan, and Arizona State University.
Jay's career as a featured expert in film and television documentaries and news magazine programs began to flourish after his appearance in Participant Media's Last Call at the Oasis (2011). His engaging manner was praised by the New York Times, and his "droll deadpan" and "delightfully glum" delivery were lauded by the San Francisco International Film Festival and Variety. His on-screen quip "we're screwed" became one of the movie's key taglines, lamenting the fate of California water resources.
Following several high-profile research papers and op-eds on the depletion of the world's groundwater resources, Jay has appeared on CBS 60 Minutes (2010),Real Time with Bill Maher (2003),in the PBS water documentary series H2O: The Molecule that Made Us, in Amazon Prime's Day Zero, and in DW Documentary's Thirst series.
In 2019, Jay created the freshwater science podcast What About Water? with Jay Famiglietti, serving as its Executive Producer and host for 71 episodes over five seasons.
