Timmons Roberts

Roberts is Ittleson Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology at the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society. He directed programs in environmental science and policy at the College of William and Mary, Tulane University, and at Brown, and was a James Martin 21st Century Professor at Oxford University in 2006-2007. His Sociology Ph.D. was from Johns Hopkins University in the Program in Comparative International Development.

Roberts’ current research and public engagement have three threads: 1. How do shifting relations between the global North and South affect the United Nations negotiations on climate change? 2. How is foreign aid being transformed by the need to assist developing countries cope with climate impacts and green their economies? And 3. What social factors explain whether nations are relatively high or low carbon emitters for their level of human development? What can this tell us about how we might quickly shift to low carbon futures? In all three research threads his core focus is on how equity affects our ability to address the complex global commons problem of climate change.

Roberts' engaged work is global, national, and local. A co-founder of AidData.org while at the College of William and Mary, Timmons is part of an international effort to produce a quantum leap in transparency in development finance, focusing especially on climate finance. His Climate and Development Lab at Brown (www.climatedevlab.brown.edu) provides research support to developing nations, in collaborates with research institutes around the world through AdaptationWatch.org. He is a leader in Rhode Island's efforts to lead the nation on addressing climate change; supervising groups of students who, in collaborating with local organizations, have successfully passed major climate change legislation. Timmons was appointed to the Board on Environmental Change and Society of the National Research Council and is the winner of two awards for distinguished contributions by the American Sociological Association and the International Sociological Association.

EDUCATION

• B.A. in Biology, Kenyon College
• Ph.D. in Sociology, John Hopkins University