Date:
Location:
"Mercury Stories: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Analyzing Sustainability Challenges”
Attend this event via Zoom (advance registration required)
Speakers:
Noelle Eckley Selin, Associate Professor, Institute for Data, Systems and Society and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences; Director, Technology and Policy Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Henrik Selin, Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Studies, Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University.
Contact:
Paul Sherman
paul_sherman@hks.harvard.edu
Co-sponsored by the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University.
This event is online only. Please click the "Read More" link for full instructions on how to attend this seminar.
Chair:
Sheila Jasanoff, Faculty Associate. Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies, Harvard Kennedy School.
Remote Access Information:
To join by computer:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSduDex5bm5Oa9lp6z30zBOKxcodi171rmBi-rF6BQH-h681LA/viewform
Please note: This event requires registration by noon on Friday, November 6 to receive the meeting link and password.
Abstract:
Henrik Selin and Noelle Eckley Selin examine sustainability through analyzing human interactions with mercury over thousands of years. They explore how people have made beneficial use of this volatile element, how they have been harmed by its toxic properties, and how they have tried to protect themselves and the environment from its damaging effects. Taking a systems approach, they develop and apply an analytical framework that can inform other efforts to evaluate and promote sustainability.
Speaker Bios:
Henrik Selin is Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Studies in the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. His research focus on international environmental cooperation and policy-making in a broader context of promoting sustainable development. He is the author of Mercury Stories: Understanding Sustainability through a Volatile Element (MIT Press, with Noelle Eckley Selin), European Union Environmental Governance (Routledge, with Stacy VanDeveer) and Global Governance of Hazardous Chemicals: Challenges of Multilevel Management (MIT Press). He is the co-editor of Changing Climates in North American Politics: Institutions, Policy Making and Multilevel Governance (MIT Press, with Stacy VanDeveer) and Transatlantic Environment and Energy Politics: Comparative and International Perspectives (Ashgate, with Miranda Schreurs and Stacy VanDeveer). In addition, he is the author and co-author of over fifty peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters as well as numerous reports, reviews, and commentaries.
Noelle Eckley Selin is Associate Professor in the Institute for Data, Systems and Society and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, and Director of MIT's Technology and Policy Program. Her research uses modeling and analysis to inform sustainability decision-making, focusing on issues involving air pollution, climate change and hazardous substances such as mercury. She received her PhD and M.A. (Earth and Planetary Sciences) and B.A. (Environmental Science and Public Policy) from Harvard University. Her work has focused on atmospheric chemistry, air pollution, as well as interactions between science and policy in international environmental negotiations. Her articles were selected as the best environmental policy papers in 2015 and 2016 by the journal Environmental Science & Technology. She is the recipient of a U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER award (2011), a Leopold Leadership fellow (2013-2014), Kavli fellow (2015), a member of the Global Young Academy (2014-2018), an American Association for the Advancement of Science Leshner Leadership Institute Fellow (2016-2017), and a Hans Fischer Senior Fellow at the Technical University of Munich Institute for Advanced Study (2018-2021).
