May 10, 2011
TEMPE, Ariz., -- Michael Hanemann, a world-renowned environmental economist, has been elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Hanemann is the Julie A. Wrigley Chair in Sustainability at Arizona State University (ASU), where he holds joint appointments in the Department of Economics of the W. P. Carey School of Business, and in the School of Sustainability.
Hanemann is working on the future water needs of the Hopi Tribe under the new Arizona standard for Indian water rights, which calls for a supply of water adequate to make the Reservation a “comfortable homeland” and to permit sustained economic growth. He also is assisting the U.S. Geological Survey as it moves forward to implement an adaptive management strategy for the Glen Canyon Dam.
A leading expert hired by the California Energy Commission, the California State Assembly, and local governments in the San Francisco Bay Area, Hanemann is recognized globally for his research in non-market valuation and his work on the economics of water and the economics of irreversibility and adaptive management. His recent work includes assessing the vulnerability of Bay Area communities to climate change and developing appropriate adaptation strategies – focused particularly on water, transportation, coastal impacts, agriculture, and health.
Hanemann serves as a contributing author for the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), which will be released in 2014. The IPCC is the leading international body for the assessment of climate change that provides the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of knowledge in climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic impacts. The report is expected to carry significant global influence.
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is an honorific society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Membership is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded a scientist or engineer. Academy membership is composed of approximately 2,100 members and 380 foreign associates, of whom nearly 200 have won Nobel Prizes.
Hanemann is among the 72 members and 18 foreign associates from 15 countries newly elected (May 2011) to the NAS in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. ASU is home to 12 faculty who are members of the National Academy of Sciences.
Media Contacts:
Karen Leland, Director, Communications
Global Institute of Sustainability/School of Sustainability
Arizona State University
karen.leland@asu.edu / 480-965-0013
Debbie Freeman, Communications Manager
W. P. Carey School of Business
debbie.freeman@asu.edu / 480-965-9271