Director, Environmental and Sustainability Studies
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Robert Krueger
Associate Professor
Co-Director, London Project Center
Director, Worcester Community Project Center
Social Science & Policy Studies
Email: krueger@wpi.edu
Office: SL 223C
Phone: 508-831-5110
Robert Krueger is the founding director of WPI's Environment and Sustainability Studies Program. He has been a Co-Principal Investigator on two U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grants focused on environmental justice issues in Worcester. He serves as co-chair of the EPA’s Environmental Justice Working Group. He is also board president of the Regional Environmental Council. A broad, international audience recognizes Krueger’s scholarship on urban sustainability. He has published dozens of papers in prestigious internationally peer-reviewed journals. ... View Profile
I possess a strong commitment to student education, and a goal of mine is to stimulate students' critical thinking and problem solving abilities. I have a well-grounded research background, which informs my teaching of interdisciplinary topics with an expertise in environmental science and conservation biology in both North and Latin America. I take an experiential approach to teaching where students receive a solid foundation of knowledge but then apply this to real-life situations. Field projects and service learning are essential components of my classroom instruction. ... View Profile
Constance Clark
Associate Professor
Email: cclark@wpi.edu
Office: Salisbury Labs 408 D
Phone: 508-831-5712
In addition to teaching the history of science and technology, I have at various times in the past raised baby birds at the Bronx Zoo and the Baltimore Aquarium, curated and inventoried mammal skeletons in attics at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, designed biology teaching labs at the University of Colorado, and collected dinosaurs and other fossils while camping in the Wyoming badlands with paleontology field crews. ... View Profile
James Kevin Doyle
Department Head & Assoc Prof
Department Head, SSPS
Social Science & Policy Studies
Email: doyle@wpi.edu
Office: Salisbury Laboratories 311
Phone: 508-831-5583
I am a social psychologist trained in the interdisciplinary field of judgment and decision making. I am particularly interested in how people develop an understanding of complex environmental and societal problems and how their "mental models" of complex systems can best be studied and improved to aid both personal and public decision making. I firmly believe that environmental and social problems can't be solved without understanding how they are represented in the mind and identifying what cognitive processes people bring to bear upon them. ... View Profile
Laureen Elgert
Assistant Professor
Social Science & Policy Studies
Email: lelgert@wpi.edu
Office: Salisbury Laboratories
Phone: 508-831-5452
Laureen's interest in environmental studies grew as she traveled through Southeast Asia and South America, noticing that local resource users' idea of environmentalism often bore little resemblance to familiar interpretations. She has since been particularly interested in the environment-development nexus, examining how politics shapes global environmental policy that can, and often does, have profound impacts on local livelihoods. ... View Profile
Roger S. Gottlieb
Professor
Email: gottlieb@wpi.edu
Office: Salisbury Labs 04
Phone: 508-831-5439, 508-831-5246, 508-831-5385
Roger S. Gottlieb, professor of philosophy, is the author or editor of twenty books and more than 100 articles on environmentalism, religious studies, contemporary spirituality, political philosophy, ethics, the Holocaust, feminism, and disability. He is internationally known for his work as a leading analyst and exponent of religious environmentalism, for his passionate and moving account of spirituality in an age of environmental crisis, and for his innovative and humane description of the role of religion in a democratic society. ... View Profile
J. Scott Jiusto
Associate Professor
Interdisciplinary & Global Studies
Email: sjiusto@wpi.edu
Office: Project Center 205
Phone: 508-831-5393
My teaching, research, and community engagement is integrated through my participation in WPIs Global Projects Program, where I help students prepare for and conduct projects in places such as London, Venice, Puerto Rico, Denmark, Washington and Worcester. Through the WPI Cape Town Project Centre, especially, I see my work as an exercise in Shared Action Learning (SAL), which I describe to students and others is a way to think about and engage in partnerships for sustainable community development. ... View Profile
Fred J. Looft
Professor & Ac Dir Systems Eng
Electrical & Computer Engineering
Email: fjlooft@wpi.edu
Office: Atwater Kent 012
Phone: 508-831-5369, 508-831-5231
When I first came to WPI/ECE, I was involved in the modeling of sensory receptors and neural coding—a field of study at the interface between electrical engineering, communications systems, biomedical engineering, neurosciences, and sensory systems. For about 20 years I published papers and worked on research grants related to sensory systems and neural coding, advised undergraduate and graduate projects, and collaborated on several projects with a colleague at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester. ... View Profile
Lauren M. Mathews
Associate Professor
Email: lmathews@wpi.edu
Office: Gateway Park 4006
Phone: 508-831-5643, 508-831-5938
Research in my laboratory addresses questions in the field of evolutionary ecology and environmental biology, and typically combines field work and laboratory studies. Current projects focus on two disciplines.
One of the major goals of my laboratory is to understand the geographic and evolutionary processes that affect and generate biological diversity, particularly in aquatic habitats. In North America, freshwater faunas are particularly vulnerable to ecological changes because of heavy manipulation of habitats by human activity. ... View Profile
Paul P. Mathisen
Associate Professor
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Email: mathisen@wpi.edu
Office: Kaven Hall 209E
Phone: 508-831-5530, 508-831-5343
Professor Mathisen's teaching and research concentrate in the areas of water resources and environmental engineering. He enjoys challenging himself to learn new ideas and concepts, which he can then apply to solve problems that can make a difference for other people. WPI's curriculum and projects program provide the perfect environment for fostering these opportunities. Professor Mathisen especially enjoys advising projects and working with students, since these activities always provide excellent opportunities to learn, solve problems, and make a difference. ... View Profile
R. Creighton Peet
Associate Teaching Professor
Director, Namibia Project Center
Director, Hong Kong Project Center
Interdisciplinary & Global Studies
Email: cpeet@wpi.edu
Office: Salisbury Labs 331
Phone: 508-831-6730
After spending many years working in international development and humanitarian assistance, as well as in international social and environmental education, and anthropological field research, Creighton Peet joined WPI in 2000 as part of its Interdisciplinary and Global Studies Division. He loves teaching at WPI and sharing what he has learned over the years through its project-based curriculum; this style of teaching is a way of learning for him, directly and indirectly, and it satisfies his own research interests in the sustainable management of natural resources, especially water. ... View Profile
Reeta Rao
Associate Professor
Email: rpr@wpi.edu
Office: Gateway Park 4013
Phone: 508-831-6713, 508-831-6120
My research program focuses on understanding and managing fungal diseases. We primarily study Candida albicans, an opportunistic pathogen and the most prevalent fungal pathogen of humans. It is responsible for common clinical problems including oral thrush and vaginitis, but can also lead to life-threatening systematic infections in immunocompromised individuals such as AIDS patients, resulting in 30-50% mortality rates. The estimated annual cost of treating nosocomial Candida infections exceeds $1 billion per year. ... View Profile
Kent J. Rissmiller
Dean ad interim, Interdisciplinary and Global Studies Division
Director, Washington Project Center
Interdisciplinary & Global Studies
Email: kjr@wpi.edu
Office: Project Center 201
Phone: 508-831-5019
Kent Rissmiller completed studies in political science at Muhlenberg College (AB) and Syracuse University (PhD). Along the way, he also completed a JD at the University of New Hampshire Law School, where he worked in the Energy Law Institute. Professor Rissmiller also worked for three years as an attorney for the Public Service Commission of Nevada, where he was involved in setting rates and policies for electric and water utilities. At WPI, Professor Rissmiller teaches government, law, and public policy. He also directs the Pre-Law program and oversees the Law and Technology minor. ... View Profile
Thomas B. Robertson
Associate Professor
Email: tbr@wpi.edu
Office: Salisbury Labs 234
Phone: 508-831-5871
(ON LEAVE 2016-2017 US Agency for International Development).
I specialize in environmental history, international development, 20th-century America, and the Himalayas. I am particularly interested in American relations with the developing world. My first book, The Malthusian Moment, focuses on post-World War II American debates about population growth, both at home and globally. My current research examines the environmental history of U.S. ... View Profile
Derren Rosbach
Associate Teaching Professor
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Email: drosbach@wpi.edu
Office: Salisbury Laboratories, 327
Phone: 508-831-5826
The overarching goal of my teaching and research is to contribute to an interdisciplinary understanding of environmental governance and policy. More specifically, I focus on the building of individual, organizational and institutional capacities to participate in collaborative efforts to address complex social and environmental sustainability problems through the application of science and technology. My academic and professional background includes experience in molecular biology, microbial ecology, wildlife biology, sustainable forestry and most recently environmental policy and planning. ... View Profile
Jennifer Rudolph
Associate Professor
Email: jrudolph@wpi.edu
Office: Salisbury Labs 408B
Phone: 508-831-6739
Jennifer Rudolph's main area of research is modern Chinese political history. While her first book dissects institutional change in late imperial China, in her second, she explores identity politics in the Taiwan Strait. In it, Rudolph explores co-optations of a 17th-century pirate-merchant Zheng Chenggong. Through the centuries, Zheng has lived on, with regimes ruling, or desirous of ruling, Taiwan portraying him as a traitor, Confucian god, Chinese nationalist, Japanese nationalist, and the Moses of Taiwan. ... View Profile
Khalid Saeed
Professor
Director System Dynamics Program
Director System Dynamics and Innovation Management Program
Social Science & Policy Studies
Email: saeed@wpi.edu
Office: Salisbury Labs 312-D
Phone: 508-831-5296, 508-831-5563
Khalid Saeed is professor of economics and system dynamics. Widely recognized for his work on computer modeling and experimental analysis of developmental, organizational, and governance-related issues, he has written two books and numerous articles and book chapters on a variety of developmental and management agendas, including sustainable economic development, infrastructure planning, political economy, supply chain management, and system dynamics modeling. ... View Profile
John Sanbonmatsu is interested in critical theory, including theories of social change, and political philosophy. View Profile
Ingrid K. Shockey
Associate Teaching Professor
Director, India Project Center
Co-Director, New Zealand Project Center
Interdisciplinary & Global Studies
Email: ishockey@wpi.edu
Office: Project Center, 209
Phone: 508-831-6635
Ingrid Shockey is an environmental sociologist whose work focuses on natural literacy and the interplay of human-wilderness boundaries--an interest sparked by a summer job she once held at Yellowstone National Park. From there, her research concerns have grown to include the extent to which people rely on substitutions for authentic experiences in the wild. This includes tracking diminishing environmental literacy and documenting dynamics in how knowledge and perception of nature determine the depth of our engagement with the environment. ... View Profile
Elisabeth "Lisa" Stoddard
Assistant Teaching Professor
Email: eastoddard@wpi.edu
Office: Salisbury Laboratories, 240
Professor Stoddard’s research focuses on the policy and politics of food production in a changing climate and global economy. Her work analyzes the ways in which the governance of agriculture and livestock production shapes our food systems’ vulnerability and capacity to adapt to drought, floods, the global spread of disease, and other hazards. She is also interested in issues of environmental injustice in the livestock industry and the ability of social movements to make powerful changes, especially in the age of social media. ... View Profile
Seth Tuler
Associate Teaching Professor
Co-Director, Bangkok Project Center
Co-Director, Boston Project Center
Interdisciplinary & Global Studies
Email: stuler@wpi.edu
Office: Project Center 211A
Phone: 508-831-6444
Seth has been part of the Interdisciplinary and Global Studies Division since 2002, as teacher, advisor, and co-director of project centers. He is the co-Director of the Bangkok Project Center and co-Director of the Boston Project Center, where he enjoys exposing students to contemporary problems in environmental and public health policy making and challenging them to apply insights emerging from research to practical applications. ... View Profile