Jayajit Chakraborty

Bio

Jayajit Chakraborty is a Professor and Mellichamp Endowed Chair in Racial Environmental Justice at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at UC Santa Barbara. He has a Ph.D. in Geography and M.S. in Urban & Regional Planning, both from the University of Iowa. Professor Chakraborty’s research activities encompass a wide range of concerns related to the human dimensions of climate and environmental change, with an emphasis on environmental justice and social vulnerability to hazards and disasters. Other topics of interest include climate justice, disability justice, food security, and health equity. His scholarship has examined environmental inequalities at multiple geographic scales in the US, US-Mexico border, Australia, and India. His research utilizes a variety of methodologies, including applications of GIScience and spatial statistical techniques, as well as social surveys and mixed-methods approaches.

Professor Chakraborty has published 4 books and more than 140 articles/chapters, including The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Justice, a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) report on Constructing Valid Geospatial Tools for Environmental Justice, and a chapter for the US Government’s Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5). His research has been funded by grants from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), US National Science Foundation (NSF), US Department of Transportation, US Department of Treasury, American Association of Geographers, and many other agencies. He was also a recipient of the University of Texas System Faculty STARs Award and the NSF Geospatial Fellowship for Advancing COVID-19 Research and Education.

Professor Chakraborty recently served on the NASEM Committee on Utilizing Advanced Environmental Health and Geospatial Data and Technologies to Inform Community Investment that provided recommendations for meeting the goals of the White House Justice40 Initiative. He has also been a member of the EPA Science Advisory Board, Work Group for Review of Science Supporting EPA Decisions, and the inaugural EPA Environmental Justice Science Committee. He chaired the Scientific Review Panel for the EPA's EJScreen Mapping & Screening Tool and was a lead discussant on the EPA Environmental Justice Science & Analysis Review Panel. Professor Chakraborty currently serves on the editorial board of several journals, including Environmental Justice and Environment, Development & Sustainability.