Ashwini Chhatre

Ashwini Chhatre is an interdisciplinary scholar with research interests broadly centred on the dynamic cross-scale interactions between governance, economic development, and environmental protection. Ashwini relocated to India from the US in 2014 to serve on the faculty at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. He spent 13 years in the US, five of which were in Graduate School at Duke University, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in Political Science. Ashwini was the first Giorgio Ruffolo Post-doctoral Fellow in Sustainability Science at Harvard University in 2006-07, before joining the faculty in the Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Between his BA in Economics from University of Delhi in 1990 and the start of PhD at Duke, Ashwini spent 11 years working in different parts of India, mostly as a community organizer and social activist working on issues related to natural resources like land, forests, and water. A background in Economics, graduate training in Political Science, and long-standing engagement with scholarship in Geography, Anthropology, Landscape Ecology, and Environmental History ensure that his research will never be confined to a single discipline! Ashwini’s main research interests lie in the study of the intersection of democracy with environment and development, with a focus on decentralized forest governance, climate change vulnerability and adaptation, and multifunctional agriculture. Over the last 20 years, the scope of this research projects have covered the entire spectrum from household-level to global analysis, and have continuously bridged research, policy, and practice. Ashwini was the founding Editor-in-Chief of World Development Perspectives during 2016-19, served as the Senior Editor of Conservation Letters during 2009-2014, and his research has been published as one book and several articles in Science, PNAS, and other leading journals. He currently serves as the Executive Director of Bharti Institute of Public Policy at the Indian School of Business while serving on its faculty as an Associate Professor of Public Policy.

Grants

Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, and Dutch Research Council (NWO) - Bright spots of climate-smart agriculture: Learning from high-performing farming systems

Experience

Academic

• 2019 - Present: Chair-IRB, Indian School of Business
• 2017 - Present: Executive Director, Bharti Institute of Public Policy, Indian School of Business
• 2017 - Present: Associate Professor of Public Policy, Indian School of Business
• 2015 - Present: Adjunct Professor,Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 2017 - 2019: Executive Director, Digital Identity Research Initiative, Indian School of Business
• 2014 - 2017: Senior Research Fellow and Visiting Professor, Indian School of Business
• 2013 - 2015: Associate Professor,Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 2011 - 2015: Affiliate Faculty, Program in Ecology,Evolution,and Conservation Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 2009 - 2015: Faculty Fellow, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana
• 2007 - 2013: Assistant Professor,Department of Geography, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 2010 - 2011: Associate Fellow,Center for Advanced Study, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 2006 - 2007: Giorgio Ruffolo Post-doctoral Fellow in Sustainability Science,Center for International Development, Kennedy School of Government,Harvard University

Professional

• 2015 - 2018: Editor-in-Chief, World Development Perspectives
• 2014 - 2017: Director of Research, Revitalizing Rainfed Agriculture Network, India
• 2009 - 2014: Senior Editor, Conservation Letters