William C. Clark
Harvard University
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Primary Section: 64, Human Environmental Sciences Secondary Section: 63, Environmental Sciences and Ecology Membership Type:
Member
(elected 2002)
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Biosketch
William Clark is the Harvey Brooks Professor of International Science, Public Policy and Human Development at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Trained as an ecologist, his research focuses on sustainability science: understanding the interactions of human and environmental systems with a view toward advancing the goals of sustainable development. He is particularly interested in how institutional arrangements affect the linkage between knowledge and action in the sustainability arena. At Harvard, he directs the Sustainability Science Program. He is co-author of Pursuing sustainability: A guide to the science and practice (Princeton, 2016), Adaptive environmental assessment and management (Wiley, 1978), and Redesigning rural development (Hopkins, 1982); editor of the Carbon dioxide review (Oxford, 1982); coeditor of Sustainable development of the biosphere (Cambridge, 1986), The earth transformed by human action (Cambridge, 1990), Learning to manage global environmental risks (MIT, 2001), Global Environmental Assessments (MIT, 2006) and The global health system: Institutions in a time of transition (Harvard, 2010). Clark is a recipient of the MacArthur Prize, the Humboldt Prize, the Kennedy School’s Carballo Award for excellence in teaching, and the Harvard College Phi Beta Kappa Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
Research Interests
My research addresses sustainability science: the interactions between human development and Earth's environment. I seek to understand what shapes the long-term, large-scale dynamics of those interactions and how knowledge can be better mobilized to guide them along mutually sustaining trajectories. One thread of my work has explored the processes that determine the vulnerability and resilience of coupled nature-society systems. Another has traced the historical evolution of such systems, with special attention to the interplay among ideas, interests, and institutions in shaping human responses to environmental change. Increasingly, however, I am focusing my research on the question of how society can better utilize science and technology as tools for learning sustainable development. This work has involved the design of indicator systems for informing ecosystem management, the evaluation of alternative approaches to environmental assessment, and analyzing why some institutional arrangements have been more effective than others for mobilizing R&D in support of decision making. These are inherently collaborative endeavors and have involved me in nurturing a variety of international, interdisciplinary research and training programs.
