Three faculty join ENVS this fall

We are excited to welcome three new faculty members, Drs. Stacy Philpott, Adam Millard-Ball, and Andrew Szasz, to the Environmental Studies faculty in fall 2012.

September 20, 2012

From left: Stacy Philpott, Adam Millard-Ball, Andrew Szasz.

Dr. Stacy Philpott will hold the Alfred E. Heller Chair in Agroecology.  Dr. Philpott’s research and teaching focuses on the ecology, conservation, and sustainability of agricultural systems in both tropical and temperate areas. She is interested in learning about basic ecological processes in agricultural systems, especially involving insects, and in understanding how ecosystem services, such as pest control, pollination, and climate change adaptation and mitigation, are affected by changes in agricultural management. Her current work also aims to reveal potential trade-offs between ecological function, biodiversity conservation, and producer livelihoods within agroecosystems. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, was a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Institution, and most recently was Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Toledo.

Bridging urban planning and environmental economics, Dr. Adam Millard-Ball’s research and teaching address some of the key challenges in transportation, energy and climate change policy. His current work examines the effectiveness of local climate planning efforts, the design of carbon trading programs, and pathways to motorization in the developing world. Adam comes to UCSC from McGill University, where he was an assistant professor in the Department of Geography and McGill School of Environment. He holds a PhD in Environment and Resources from Stanford University, and was formerly a Principal with transportation planning firm Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates.

Dr. Andrew Szasz has been a professor in the Sociology Department at UCSC since 1986.  We are pleased that he will be joining the Environmental Studies Department faculty this fall, while he continues to teach one course in the Sociology Department.  His past research projects have studied the politics of regulation, worker safety and health, hazardous waste policy, military toxics, environmental justice.  In current research, Szasz is studying the greening of religion and, more specifically, how faith communities in the U.S. are responding to the challenge of climate change. He teaches courses in Environmental Sociology, Environmental Justice and Sociological Theory.  Szasz’s first book “EcoPopulism: Toxic Waste and the Movement for Environmental Justice,” won the Association for Humanistic Sociology's book award for 1994-95 and his most recent book, “Shopping Our Way to Safety,” was a finalist for the C. Wright Mills book award for 2008.  In 2011, Szasz received the ASA Environment and Technology Section’s Distinguished Contribution award, the highest honor in American environment sociology.