J. Timmons Roberts
Director, Center for Environmental Studies and
Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies:
Sociology and Environmental Studies
Phone: (401) 863-3449
J_Timmons_Roberts@brown.edu
Office Hours for Spring 2012:
10:30-11:30 T/Th
1:30-2:30 Weds
Articles & Policy Briefings:
Adaptation finance: How can Durban deliver on past promises?
Scoring fast-start climate finance: leaders and laggards in transparency
More Dollars than Sense: Refining Our Knowledge of Development Finance Using AidData
Renegades Keep Climate Finance Tracking a Wild West
“A Collective Commitment”? Nailing down Climate Finance in Cancun and Durban
Keeping a big promise: options for baselines to assess “new and additional” climate finance
Ecological Economics
How many people does it take….to administer long-term climate finance?
Biography
Timmons Roberts is Director of the Center for Environmental Studies
and Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies. He taught at the
College of William and Mary and directed its Program in Environmental
Science and Policy (2001-2009), and he held a joint appointment in Latin
American Studies and Sociology and co-directed the Environmental
Studies program at Tulane University (1991-2001). He was a James Martin
21st Century Professor at Oxford University's Environmental Change
Institute in 2006-2007, and a Research Fellow at William and Mary's
Institute for the Theory and Practice of International Relations in
2008-2009. His 1992 Ph.D. was from Johns Hopkins University in
Sociology's Program in Comparative International Development. His B.A.
was in Biology (with research in tropical and temperate ecology) from
Kenyon College.
Co-author and editor of eight books and over sixty articles and book
chapters, Timmons' current research focuses on climate change and
international devleopment. It has three threads: 1. How shifting
relations between the global North and South affect the United Nations
negotiations on climate change; 2. The role of foreign aid in the
negotiations and in assisting developing countries cope with climate
impacts and greening their economies; and 3. What social factors explain
national "pathways" (being relatively high or low carbon emitters for
their level of human development). In all three the core focus is on
how equity affects our ability to address this complex global problem.
A co-founder of AidData.org, Timmons is part of an international effort
to produce a quantum leap in transparency in climate finance, and
foreign aid more broadly. His Climate and Development Lab at Brown
provides research support to the Least Developed Countries Group (the
world's 49 poorest nations) in the U.N. negotiations. He is a leader in
Rhode Island's efforts to plan for how to adapt to climate changes,
serving on the RI Climate Change Commission, created in 2010 by
legislation written by him and his Brown students. Professor Roberts
has worked for many years with students on greening initiatives and with
community groups and local, state and national governments. He teaches
environmental sociology, globalization and the environment, and
practicum group workshop courses on environmental policy issues. Most
recently, he was appointed to the Board on Environmental Change and
Society of the National Academy of Sciences.
Degrees
Ph.D.
Awards
2011 Selected for National Academy of Sciences Human Dimensions of Global Change committee
2008 Fred Buttel Distinguished Contribution Award, the Environment and
Technology Section of the American Sociological Association
2001 Graduate Student Association "Teacher of the Year" Award, Department of Sociology, Tulane
2001 Latin American Studies Graduate Student Association Teaching Award
2000 Presidential Certificate in Undergraduate Teaching in recognition of the Service Learning Teaching Award
2000, 2001 Mortar Board (Alpha Sigma Sigma Chapter) Award for Outstanding Teaching, Newcomb College
1999 The Tulane College Senior Class Outstanding Advisor Award for Exemplary Service to Students
1993, 1996 Nominated for the Tulane Graduate School Student Association Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching
Affiliations
American Sociological Association
Section on Environment and Technology
Section on Political Economy of the World System
International Studies Association
International Sociological Association
Working Group 24 Environment and Technology
Teaching
Environmental Sociology; Globalization, Development and Social Change; Research Methods; Environmental Governance and Policy; Environmental Justice; Latin America; Climate Change; Environmental Studies
Funded Research
2008-2015 Co-Principal Investigator, William and Flora Hewlett
Foundation Grant to the Project-Level Aid Research Project, awarded May,
2008. $500,000 and $250,000 supplement; $1.0 million awarded in 2010.
2008-2011 Co-Principal Investigator, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Grant to the Project-Level Aid Research Project, awarded August, 2008.
$1.44 million and $1.5 million supplement.
2010-2012 Principal Investigator, Rhode Island Foundation. Support for
Rhode Island Climate Change Commission. Collaborative project with the
Statewide Planning office, the Senate Policy Office, and the Environment
Council of Rhode Island to provide staff assistance for a new
commission created by legislation penned by my students. $25,000.
2008-2011 (Former) Program Director, Mellon Foundation Grant for the
Creation of Postdoctoral Teaching and Research Fellowships in
Environmental Science and Policy, and the Creation of a Center for
Geospatial Analysis at the College of William and Mary. $1.5 million.
2009-2011 Principal Investigator, UK government Department of
International Development (DFID) commissioned research: "Measuring DFID
Spend on Climate Adaptation." $82,000
2009-2014 Lead of contract research team for US Department of Defense
MINERVA research project to University of Texas on Fragile States and
Climate Change in Africa. Total Award $66,131.
2008-2011 Program Director, Mellon Foundation Grant for the Creation of
Postdoctoral Teaching and Research Fellowships in Environmental Science
and Policy, and the Creation of a Center for Geospatial Analysis at the
College of William and Mary. $1.5 million
2006-2007 James Martin 21st Century Professor, Environmental Change
Institute, Oxford University. Office, travel, research, conference
organizing, and living support totaling over $40,000.
2005-2008 Director and Lead Writer, Renewal Grant from Mellon Foundation
"Enhancing Undergraduate Environmental Science and Policy at the
College of William and Mary." $300,000 ($530,000 in institutional
match).
2005-2008 Co-Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
Political Science Program Research Grant: "Collaborative Research:
Analyzing Development Finance Using PLAID Data" [Project-Level Aid].
Michael Tierney, PI. Total Costs: $253,000.
2003-2006 Co-Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program.
"Interdisciplinary Watershed Studies," P.I. Randy Chambers, Director of
the Keck Environmental Field Laboratory. Total costs: $200,621.
2002-2003 Co-Principal Investigator, Virginia Environmental Endowment.
"Environmental Impacts of Development in Southeastern Virginia
Watersheds: Interdisciplinary Measurement and Analysis." Total Costs:
$25,944 plus $25,977 matching grant.
1993-1995 Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation Sociology
Program Grant: "Social Roots of Environmental Damage: A World-Systems
Analysis of Global Warming and Deforestation." Total costs: $140,438.
1993-1994 Principal Investigator, Department of Energy Grant: "Risk,
Stress and Restructuring in the U.S. Petrochemical Industry: A Case
Study from Louisiana." (Administered through Tulane/Xavier Consortium).
Total costs: $38,892.
'92, '93, '97,'00 Research Fellow, Mellon/Tinker Foundations/Tulane
Latin American Studies. Summer research grants for research in Brazil,
$4000 each.
1989-1990 Fulbright Commission Doctoral Research Fellow, Grant Total: $14,000.
Web Links
Curriculum Vitae
Download J. Timmons Roberts's Curriculum Vitae in PDF Format