Faculty Information
Mark Axelrod, Assistant Professor in James Madison College & Fisheries and Wildlife
Ph.D. Duke, Political Science3
Mark Axelrod is an Assistant Professor in James Madison College and the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. He is completing his doctorate in Political Science at Duke University, and also holds a law degree from Stanford University. Mark's teaching and research interests center around the negotiation and implementation of international law, with a particular focus on international environmental agreements. His dissertation addresses negotiation practices of rising and declining global powers, drawing on interview research and a random sample of multilateral treaties. Other research interests involve the influence of democratic institutions on environmental protection and treaty enforcement. In Spring 2008, Mark will teach International Environmental Law and Policy (MC/FW450) and Democracy, Power, and Community Environmental Action (FW893).
Richard Bellon, Assistant Professor in Lyman Briggs College and the History Department
Ph.D., University of Washington, History of Science
bellonr@msu.edu
Richard Bellon studies and teaches the history of science. Two different goals currently drive his teaching and research. First, he wants to better explain the reception of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in the 1860s and 1870s, paying particular attention to Darwin's groundbreaking application of evolution to botanical research. Second, he wants to uncover and explore the deep historical and philosophical roots of contemporary biotechnology--where science, commerce, politics and morality collide with ever greater force and consequence.
Tobin
Craig, Assistant Professor in James Madison College
PhD, Boston College, Political Science
craigt@msu.edu
Dr. Craig's dissertation was on Bacon's New Atlantis and the place of
technology in modern politics. His areas of research and interest center on
the philosophic origins and criticisms of modern science and technology,
and the political and moral problems associated with modern science and
technology.
Dan Kramer, Assistant Professor in
James Madison College and Fisheries & Wildlife
Ph.D., University of Minnesota, Conservation Biology
dbk@msu.edu
Dr. Kramer has a joint appointment between James Madison College and the
Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. His research examines the social,
economic, and policy aspects of conservation. Recently, he has researched
the role of social capital in the stewardship activities of lake
associations. He has also used simulation models to study the effects of
variations in fishermen behavior on coral reef ecosystems. Professor
Kramer’s teaching interests include domestic and international
environmental policy, sustainable development, globalization and the
environment, the social economic, and policy aspects of conservation
biology, game theory, and quantitative methods.
Mark Largent, Assistant Professor in
James Madison College and Director of STEPPS
Ph.D., University of Minnesota, History of Science and Technology
largent@msu.edu
Dr. Largent researches the history of American science, particularly the
history of biology in the United States. He has written on the
evolution-creation debate, the professionalization of American biology, and
the history of the American eugenics movement. He is the editor of the
ABC-Clio series, "Science and Society" and is currently working
on a history of eugenics in the United States for Rutgers University Press
titled "Breeding Contempt: How and Why Thousands of Americans were
Coercively Sterilized."
Kelly Millenbah, Associate
Professor in Fisheries & Wildlife and Associate Director of
Environmental Science and Public Policy
Ph.D., Michigan State University, Fisheries & Wildlife
millenba@msu.edu
Dr. Millenbah’s teaching, research, and outreach focus on the conservation
and management of disturbed and damaged ecosystems with implications
towards unexploited and protected species (i.e., threatened and endangered
species), more broadly termed restoration ecology. Her program interfaces
restoration ecology with 1) ecological methodologies (e.g., evaluation of
restoration efforts, population viability analysis) and 2) computer-based
mapping (i.e., geographic information systems).
Georgina Montgomery, Assistant Professor in Lyman Briggs College and the Department of History
Ph.d., University of Minnesota
montg165@msu.edu
Dr. Georgina Montgomery analyzes the development of field sites and methods for the study of primate behavior and how these studies have been used to justify and/or explain various human behaviors and social hierarchies. Dr. Montgomery's teaching interests include the concepts of laboratory and field, wild and captive, natural and artificial. She frequently approaches these topics with a focus on issues of gender, feminism, and science.
Michael Nelson, Associate Professor in Lyman Briggs College and the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
Ph.D. Lancaster University
mpnelson@msu.edu
Dr. Nelson holds a joint appointment in the Lyman Briggs College (75%) and the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife (25%). He is also a member of the STEPPS (Science, Technology, Environment, and Public Policy Specialization) faculty. Dr. NelsonÕs research and teaching focus is environmental ethics and philosophy: from the concept of wilderness to topics in the philosophy of ecology, from hunting ethics to theories of environmental education, from topics in wildlife ecology and conservation biology to questions about science and advocacy. Perhaps the single most important research question that motivates Dr. NelsonÕs intellectual agenda is Òhow ought we to live with nature?Ó Currently Dr. Nelson is working on various topics within conservation philosophy and ethics: from the fusion between ecology and ethics to certain key concepts within the US Endangered Species Act to the relationship between science and advocacy to the ethics of predator control (especially with regard to wolves). He also dabbles in more narrative writing and even fiction and poetry when the stars align just right. For kicks and giggles Dr. Nelson enjoys running; playing with his 3 cats, 3 dogs, and 1 wife; playing 3-chord (usually D, G, and C, sometimes Am, occasionally F or Em) songs on his Martin D-15; and endangering himself with his mediocre carpentry skills.
Bryan Ritchie, Associate Professor in James Madison College
Ph.D., Emory University; Political Science
urquart@msu.edu
Dr. Ritchie’s research and teaching focuses on the political economy of
development, with a particular focus on innovation, technological
development, and skills formation. Although interested in these topics
generally, his research centers on Southeast Asia. In 2000-2001 he was a
Fulbright-Hays/Social Science Research Council fellow and visiting
researcher at the Thailand Development Research Institute, the National
University of Malaysia, and the National University of Singapore. He also
has extensive experience in the computer industry including management and
consulting roles for numerous firms.
Jerry Urquart, Assistant Professor
in Lyman Briggs College
Ph.D., Michigan State University, Biology
urquart@msu.edu
My interests combine research on the natural environment with applications
of information technology. He is currently doing research on poison dart
frogs tropical rainforest regeneration and is developing a project on the
paleoecology of the Saginaw Bay Region. He has developed unique ways of
using the WWW to present information about his research and interests in
tropical rainforests. I designed many websites about tropical forests and
other natural wonders, and recently won the National Audubon Society's
"Best Website 2000" award. Prior to coming to Lyman Briggs
School, he held a post-doctoral position with the Smithsonian Tropical
Research Institute in Panama. His field research is based in Nicaragua,
Costa Rica, and Panama.
John Waller, Assistant Professor in Lyman Briggs College and the History Department
Ph.D., University College, London
wallerj1@msu.edu
Dr. Waller received his B.A. in Modern History and his M.Sc. in Human Biology from the University of Oxford, his M.Sc. in History of Science and Medicine from Imperial College, London, and his Ph.D. in the History and Philosophy of Science from University College, London (in 2001). Following his graduate work, he served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard and as a Research Fellow and Part-time Lecturer at University College, London, and then became a Lecturer in History of Medicine and Biology at the University of Melbourne (Australia). Dr. Waller's research has largely focused on nineteenth-century medical science and society. He has published four books (with Oxford University Press and Cambridge: Icon Books), is working on a fifth, and has also published seven peer-reviewed articles, and a number of conference articles, reviews, and book chapters. His latest research project is a study of the "dancing mania" that arose in several different locations in sixteenth-century Europe. Dr. Waller will teach courses in the Lyman Briggs College of Science and the Department of History on the history of medicine, psychiatry, and evolutionary biology.
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