Social Sciences

	People		Staff | Faculty | Visiting Faculty | Graduate Students

Hugh S. Gorman Associate Prof. of Environmental Policy and History Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon University, 1996 Department of Social Sciences Office Location: 220 Academic Offices Office Phone: 906.487.2116 FAX: 906.487.2468 Email: hsgorman@mtu.edu Curriculum Vitae Environmental Policy Graduate Program

Hugh Gorman uses history as a lens through which to examine the interaction of policy, technology, and the environment. He is especially interested in the process by which complex technological systems come to be made more compatible with natural systems and human uses of the environment. He has published on topics such as the response of various industries to pollution concerns before regulations, the societal response to brownfields, the evolution of various U.S. environmental policies, the origins of emissions trading, and public participation in environmental decision making.  Currently, he is working on a book (tentatively titled "The Story of N: Society, Sustainability, and the Nitrogen Cycle") that examines the notion of sustainability through society's changing knowledge of and interaction with the nitrogen cycle. 

At Michigan Tech, Dr. Gorman teaches courses in which students examine how policy choices, market forces, and technological innovations shape human interactions with nature. These courses include "Science, Technology, and Society," "U.S. Environmental History," and "Institutions, Capitalism, Democracy, and Globalization."  For the Graduate Program Program in Environmental Policy, he teaches "Environmental Decision Making," a group practicum in which students use a local environmental issue, concern, or program as an exercise in decision making.