Science, Environment and Development Group

Dr. Robert Kates
33 Popple Point
Trenton, ME 04605
USA
Tel: (1) 207-667-5450
Fax: (1) 207-664-0375
Email: rwkates "at" gmail.com
Group affiliation: Collaborator

Robert Kates trained as a geographer and taught geography for many years at Clark University in Worcester, MA, USA. He also participated in interdisciplinary programs addressing both environment and development at the University of Dar as Salaam in Tanzania, Clark University, and at the World Hunger Program at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. Kates now serves as a Senior Research Fellow at Harvard and co-convener of the Steering Group for the Initiative on Science and Technology for Sustainability. Kates served as chair of the Coordinating Committee on a Transition toward Sustainability following the National Academy of Sciences' report, Our Common Journey: A Transition Toward Sustainability. His current research is on long-term trends and values, attitudes and beliefs affecting a sustainability transition -- e.g., see "What is Sustainable Development? Goals, Indicators, Values, and Practice" (Kates et al., 2005) and "Do Global Attitudes and Behaviors Support Sustainable Development?" (Leiserowitz, Kates and Parris, 2005). His most recent books include the co-authorship of Great Transition: The Promise and Lure of the Times Ahead (2002), and with the AAG Global Change in Local Places Research Group, Global Change in Local Places: Estimating, Understanding, and Reducing Greenhouse Gases (2003). He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1991 he was awarded the National Medal of Science for his work on hunger, environment, and natural hazards. He now lives and continues to work as an independent scholar in Maine.