Primary Research Interests

Climate Change

A substantial portion of Dan’s research focuses on applying social scientific perspectives to understand, communicate about, and address climate change mitigation and adaptation. Dan actively collaborates with scholars around the globe on this issue. His work has been published in outlets such as Nature Climate Change, Climatic Change, and Global Environmental Change.

Environmental Conservation and Community Resilience

One of the most meaningful ways individuals can improve the environment and become resilient to changes is to explore local, place-based activities. Dan pursues research on this topic through a variety of angles, and has worked on topics ranging from forestry management to flood prevention, to healthy fisheries. His work has been published in outlets such as Human Dimensions of Wildlife, Journal of Flood Risk Management, and Journal of Forestry.

Interdisciplinary Analysis of Complex Systems

Social scientific approaches to large scale dilemmas often fall short of real-world impact due to limitations in methodology, access to decision makers, and imagination. Dan is starting to explore interdisciplinary approaches to complex systems aimed at addressing these gaps, including fostering collaboration between natural and social scientists, conducting field research directly with decision makers in the public and private sector, and incorporating insights from advances in statistics and computation (e.g., agent-based modeling) to develop new methods of using social science insights to inform policy and practice.