Research in this area encompasses all aspects of our environment-from food to oceans to health-and beyond.

Primarily located in the Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke’s environmental sciences and policy faculty study education, research, and service focused on understanding environmental processes, predicting and managing the effects of human activities, and developing approaches to study the interactions between environmental processes and human behavior.

Faculty engage with scientists, governments, industry leaders, conservation practitioners, and communities through the world to address critical issues like climate change, energy, water quality, ecosystem management and conservation, and human and environmental health.

Participating Faculty

• Lori Bennear, PhD (Environmental Economics and Policy)
• Charlotte Clark, PhD (Environmental Policy)
• Deborah Gallagher, PhD (Duke Environmental Leadership Program)
• Randall Kramer, PhD (Environmental Economics & Global Health, Duke Global Health Institute)
• Lynn Maguire, PhD (Environmental Decision Analysis)
• Dalia Patino-Echeverri, PhD (Energy Systems and Public Policy)
• William Pizer, PhD (Public Policy, Economics and Environment, Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions)
• Kenneth Reckhow, PhD (Nicholas School of the Environment, Civil and Environmental Engineering)
• Dan Rittschof, PhD (Ecology and Toxicology)
• Elizabeth Shapiro-Garza, PhD (Environmental Policy & Management)
• Martin Smith, PhD (Environmental Economics)
• Cindy Van Dover, PhD (Biological Oceanography, Duke University Marine Laboratory, Division of Marine Science & Conservation)
• Rebecca Vidra, PhD (Environmental Science and Environmental Science and Policy)
• Tatjana Vujic, J.D. (Environmental Policy, Energy Law & Policy)
• Jonathan Wiener, PhD (Environmental Policy and Environmental Sciences and Policy)
• Erika Weinthal, PhD (Law, Environmental Policy, Public Policy)
• Anne Yoder, PhD (Biology, Duke Lemur Center)

Representative Courses

• Human Impacts Versus the Forces of Nature (Biology)
• Climate Change and the Law (Law)
• Climate Change Economics & Policy (Environmental Science, Public Policy)
• Community-Based Environmental Management (Environmental Science)
• Environmental Law (Law)
• Integrating Environmental Science And Policy (Environmental Science)
• Field Course In Community-Based Environmental Management In Mexico (Environmental Science)
• Making Environmental Decisions (Environmental Science)
• Natural Resource Economics (Economics)
• The Politics of Evolution (Biology)
• Program Evaluations of Environmental Policies (Environmental Science)
• Resource and Environmental Economics (Economics)
• Sustainability and Renewable Resource Economics (Economics)
• Topics in Environmental Regulation (Environmental Sciences)
• United States Environmental Policy (Public Policy)