Thomas Dietz

Thomas Dietz is a Professor of Sociology and Environmental Science and Policy (ESPP) at Michigan State University. He holds a PhD in ecology from the University of California, Davis, and a bachelor of general studies from Kent State University. At MSU, he was Founding Director of the Environmental Science and Policy Program and Associate dean in the Colleges of Social Science, Agriculture and Natural Resources and Natural Science.

Dr. Dietz is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He has been awarded the Sustainability Science Award of the Ecological Society of America; the Distinguished Contribution Award of the American Sociological Association Section on Environment, Technology and Society; the Outstanding Publication Award, also from the American Sociological Association Section on Environment, Technology and Society; and the Gerald R. Young Book Award from the Society for Human Ecology. At the National Research Council he has served as Chair of the U.S. National Research Council Committee on Human Dimensions of Global Change and the Panel on Public Participation in Environmental Assessment and Decision Making, and is currently Vice Chair of the Panel on Advancing the Science of Climate Change of the America’s Climate Choices study.

Dietz has also served as secretary of Section K (Social, Economic, and Political Sciences) of AAAS and is the former president of the Society for Human Ecology. He has co-authored or co-edited 11 books and more than 100 papers and book chapters. His current research examines the human driving forces of environmental change, environmental values and the interplay between science and democracy in environmental issues. Dietz is an active participant in the Ecological and Cultural Change Studies Group and the Animal Studies Program at MSU.

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