Jayajit Chakraborty

Bio

Jayajit Chakraborty is a Professor and Mellichamp 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. He is currently serving as a member of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board, Work Group for Review of Science Supporting EPA Decisions, and the EPA Environmental Justice Science Committee. He is also chairing the Scientific Review Panel for the EPA's EJScreen Mapping & Screening Tool and serving as a lead discussant of the EPA Environmental Justice Science & Analysis Review Panel. He recently served on a National Academies of Sciences Committee that provided recommendations regarding data and tools for meeting the goals of the White House Justice40 Initiative and authored a consensus study report titled Constructing Valid Geospatial Tools for Environmental Justice.

Professor Chakraborty’s research activities encompass a wide range of concerns related to the social dimensions of climate and environmental change, with an emphasis on environmental justice and community vulnerability to hazards and disasters. Other topics of interest include climate justice, disability justice, food security, and health equity. His scholarship has examined environmental and social 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 120 articles/chapters, including The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Justice and a chapter for the US Government’s Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5). His research has been funded by grants from the EPA, US National Science Foundation (NSF), US Department of Transportation, US Department of Treasury, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Australian Research Council, 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. He currently serves on the editorial board of multiple journals, including Environmental Justice and Environment, Development & Sustainability.