Current Courses
Professor Susskind is founder of and head of the Environmental Policy Group in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. He currently teaches six subjects. These are briefly described below with links to the relevant home pages, where appropriate
- 11.074/11.274: Cybersecurity Clinic
- 11.092/11.592: Renewable Energy Facility Siting Clinic (Fall and Spring)
- 11.601: Introduction to Environmental Policy & Planning
- 11.255: Negotiation and Dispute Resolution in the Public Sector
- 11.382: Water Diplomacy: The Science, Policy and Politics of Managing Shared Resources
- 11.159/11.259 (Fall and Spring): Entrepreneurial Negotiation
- 11.172/11.171: Indigenous Environmental Planning
Doctoral Advisees
Since 1979, Professor Susskind has supervised more than seventy doctoral candidates.
They are presented here, by year of graduation, with dissertation title. (Year: Advisee: Dissertation Title). Click on any year to display the graduating doctoral students and their thesis, or scroll down the complete list.
2024
Turner, Andre
DissertationTBD
Cano, Lidia
DissertationTBD
Finkelstein, Aria
DissertationTBD
2023
Preis, Benjamin
DissertationTBD
2022
Chandra, Shekhar
DissertationState, Street, and Public Goods: A Theory of
Misgovernance
Chun, Jungwoo
DissertationTBD
2021
deSouza, Priyanka
DissertationMaking Air Quality Count: Low-cost sensors,
Public Health and Urban Planning
2020
Beck, Andrea
DissertationWater Operator Partnerships : utility reform
and the struggle for alternatives to
privatization
2019
Gordon, Jessica
DissertationTBD
Zaerpoor, Yasmin
DissertationIn Pursuit of the Common Good:
Overcoming Barriers to Collective Action
through Transboundary Water Negotiation
along the Blue Nile
2018
Falco, Greg
DissertationCybersecurity for urban critical infrastructure
Smith, Christopher
DissertationEnhancing trust in US nuclear waste
management institutions
Schulman, Alexis
Bridging the divide : incorporating localecological knowledge into U.S. natural
resource management
2017
Kim, Ella
DissertationFrames and Games: Testing a Public Health
Orientation to Climate Adaptation Planning
2016
Heber-Dunning, Kelly
DissertationResilient Coasts, Resilient Communities:
Grassroots versus Top Down Management
of Coral Reefs in Southeast Asia
2015
Rumore, Danya
DissertationHelping Coastal Communities Anticipate
and Manage Climate Change Risks
Through Role-Play Simulations
Verdini Trejo, Bruno
DissertationCharting New Territories Together: Laying
the Foundations for Mutual Gains in United
States – Mexico Water and Energy
Negotiations
Stokes, Leah
DissertationPower Politics: Renewable Energy Policy
Change in US States
Schenk, Todd
DissertationInstitutionalizing Uncertainty: Exploring How
Infrastructure Stakeholders Can
Collaboratively Prepare for Uncertain
Climate Futures
2014
Marantz, Nicholas
DissertationPlanning by Contract? Negotiated
Regulation in Urban Development
2013
Dutta-Kohler, Madhu
DissertationMaking Climate Adaptation Work :
Strategies for Resource Constrained South
Asian Mega-Cities
van Maasakkers, Tijs
Dissertationrading Places : The Development of
Markets for Ecosystem Services in the
United States
2012
Anguelovski, Isabelle
DissertationNeighborhood and Refuge: Environmental
Justice and Community Reconstruction in
Boston, Barcelona and Havana
Araujo, Kathy
DissertationDecarbonizing Shifts: Dynamic Conversions
in the Sectoral Energy Balances of Four
Prime Mover Energy Countries
2011
Ashcraft, Catherine
DissertationAdaptive Governance of Contested Rivers:
A Political Journey into the Uncertain
2010
Beaudry, Kock
DissertationAddressing Agricultural Salinity in the
American West: Harnessing Behavioral
Diversity to Institutional Design
2009
Odeh, Nancy
DissertationTowards Improved Partnerships in the
Water Sector in the Middle East: A Case
Study of Partnerships in Jordan’s Water Sector
2008
Eigen, Zev
DissertationA Behavioral Theory of Contract
2007
Macey, Gregg
DissertationSheltering in Place: The Limits to Integrative
Bargaining Following Industrial Accidents
Nielsen, Erik
DissertationNetworked Governance: China’s Changing
Approach to Transboundary Environmental
Management
Rosan, Christina
DissertationMetropolitan Governance and Local Land
Use Planning in Boston, Denver, and
Portland
2006
Kohler, Pia
DissertationTowards a Global Consensus on Matters of
Science: How process and membership can
generate valid and sustainable science
advice in multilateral environmental treaty
negotiations
Kim, Dong Young
DissertationThe Politics of Consensus Building: The
Case of Diesel Passenger Cars and Urban
Air Quality Management in South Korea
Matsuura, Masahiro
DissertationLocalizing Public Dispute Resolution In
Japan: lessons from experiments with
deliberative policy-making
2005
Fuller, Boyd
DissertationTrading zones: cooperating for water
resource and ecosystem management
when stakeholders have apparently
irreconcilable differences
Flores Montalvo, Andres
DissertationPrivate vs. Public Ownership of Power
Generation in Mexico: Should
Environmental Policymakers Care?
Mostashari, Ali
DissertationStakeholder-assisted modeling and policy
design for engineering systems
2004
Blockhus, Jill
DissertationThe Potential for Trickle Up: How Local
Actors’ Experiments Influence National
Forest Policy Planning
Martinez, Janet
DissertationInternational Dispute Settlement system
Design: Analyzing the Experience of the
World Trade Organization
Sewell, Granville
DissertationConflicting Beliefs: Actors, Coalitions and
the Framework Convention on Climate
Change
2003
Rossi, Mark
DissertationGreening the Invisible Hand: How
Environmental Non-Governmental
Organizations Succeed and Fail in
Technology Change
2002
Corburn, Jason
DissertationStreet Science: The Fusing of Local and
Professional Knowledge in Environmental
Policy
2001
Ali, Saleem
DissertationEnvironmental resistance and Aboriginal
development : a comparative study of
mining ventures in the United States and
Canada
Najam, Adil
DissertationGetting Beyond The Lowest Common
Denominator: Developing Countries In
Global Environmental Negotiations
2000
Long Martello, Marybeth
DissertationGrains of Truth: Science and the Evolution
of International Desertification Policy Making
Merrigan, Kathleen
DissertationNegotiating Identity Within the Sustainable
Agriculture Advocacy Coalition
Oliveira, Jose Antonio
DissertationImplementing Environmental Policies in
Developing Countries: Responding to the
Environmental Impacts of Tourism
Development by Creating Environmentally
Protected Areas in Bahia, Brazil
1999
Gutner, Tamar
DissertationBanking on the Environment: Multilateral
Development Banks and Environmental
Policy Making in Central and Eastern
Europe
1998
Beattie, Robert
DissertationCommon ground: Sustainable Development
Conflicts in the Northern Forest of New
England and New York
Laws, David
DissertationPlanning in the Shadow of the Future:
Intergenerational Ethics in Environmental
Decision-making
Sandford, Rosemary
DissertationA Comparative Study of Global
Environmental Treaty Secretariats: Their
Roles and Influence in Treaty
Implementation
Fairman, David
DissertationReforming Natural Resource Policies in
Developing Countries: The Politics of Forest
Policy Reform in Southeast Asia
1997
Kaufmann, Joanne
DissertationBeyond the Blue Horizon: The Role of
Industry in Global Environmental Politics
1996
1995
Dolin, Eric
DissertationRemedial Adjudication in Environmental
Institution Cases: Lessons from Boston
Harbor
1994
1993
Babbit, Eileen
DissertationBeyond Neutrality: The Use of Leverage by
Powerful States as Mediators in
International Conflict
1992
Marina, Alberti
DissertationMinimization of Hazarduous Waste in
Western Europe Policy: Implementation and
Harmonization
Raab, Jonathan
DissertationConsensus-Building in Electric Utility
Regulation
1991
Konkel, Steven
DissertationUsing Joint Fact-Finding To Resolve
Disputes Over Cleanup Of Hazardous
Waste Sites
Pokharel, Jagadish
DissertationChandra Environmental Resource
Negotiation between Asymmetrically
Powerful Nations: Power of the Weaker Nations
1990
Andrews, Clinton James
DissertationImproving the Analytics of Open Planning
Process: Scenario-based Multiple Attribute
Tradeoff Analysis for Regional Electric
Power Planning
Gamman, John
DissertationEnvironmental Policy Implementation in
Developing Countries
1989
McCreary, Scott
DissertationResolving Science-Intensive Public Policy
Disputes: Lessons from the New York Bright
Initiative
1988
Ozawa, Connie
DissertationConsensual Approaches and the Role of
Science in Public Decision Making
1987
1986
Horan, Cynthia
DissertationEmpty Coffers: Tax Reform and Politics in
Boston and New York
Kim, Karl
DissertationUrban Infrastructure: The Role of Long-term
Municipal Borrowing
1985
1984
Elliott, Michael
DissertationCoping with Conflicting Perceptions of Risk
in Hazarduous Waste Facility Siting
Disputes
Horberry, John
DissertationDevelopment Assistance and the
Environment: A Question of Accountability
1983
1982
Perry, Charles
DissertationState growth management: prospects for
consensus-oriented land use planning and
conflict resolution
1981
1980
Polk, William Gastion
DissertationThe National Rural Cable TV Development
Task Force: A Case Study of a “Coordinative
Approach” to Federal Policy and Program
Implementation
Wondolleck, Julia
DissertationOil and Gas and the Public Lands: Conflict
and Resolution
1979
Yaffe, Stephen Lewis
DissertationProhibitive Policy and the Implementation of
the Endangered Species Act
Research Interests
Professor Susskind has pursued several broad research themes over the past several decades: the mediation of public disputes (particularly land use and environmental disputes), global environmental treatymaking, public involvement in governmental decision-making (particularly science-intensive policy disputes), environmental technology innovation and ways that the interests of indigenous peoples can be served in resource management disputes.
His work in the public disputes field includes studies of the effectiveness of mediation; the dynamics of multi-party, multi-issue negotiation, the ethics of public dispute resolution, and cross-cultural obstacles to transferring public dispute mediation strategies from the United States to other parts of the world. For more on his work in this area see web.mit.edu/publicdisputes.
With regard to global environmental treaty-making, his work has focused on the role of science and scientists in the treatymaking process, the expanding role of non-governmental interests in treaty-making, the relationship between informal (Track II) diplomacy and the formal processes of treaty-making, and the difficulties of enforcing transboundary environmental agreements.
In the area of public involvement in governmental decision-making his emphasis has been on the tactics and strategies of collaborative decision-making (especially joint fact finding and integrated assessment), the obstacles to expanding deliberative democracy, alternatives to Robert’s Rules of Order and majority rule in group decision-making, facility siting and land use disputes, and the use of interactive technologies to expand public participation. For more on his work in this area see scienceimpact.mit.edu
Under the heading of environmental technology innovation, Professor Susskind focuses on what he called public entrepreneurship networks — the complex web of individuals and institutions needed to harmonize efforts for “green” innovation to be successful at the community or regional scale.
New Research Directions
In the past few years, Professor Susskind’s research has focused, in addition, on (1) entrepreneurial negotiations; (2) ways of building consensus on local, state and national adaptive responses to the likely impacts of climate change (scienceimpact.mit.edu); (3) strategies for encouraging greater reliance on renewable energy, and (4) water diplomacy (www.waterdiplomacy.org); (4) cybersecurity for critical urban infrastructure; (5) siting of renewable energy facilities in the United States; and (6) science diplomacy.