Max Boykoff
Environmental Studies, University of Colorado Boulder

boykoff@colorado.edu

Maxwell T. Boykoff is an Associate Professor in the Center for Science and Technology Policy, which is part of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado-Boulder. He teaches in the Environmental Studies program and is Adjunct faculty in the Geography Department. In addition, Max is a Senior Visiting Research Associate in the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford.

He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Studies from the University of California-Santa Cruz and Bachelor of Sciences in Psychology from The Ohio State University. Max has ongoing interests in climate adaptation, cultural politics and environmental governance, science-policy interactions, and political economy and the environment, and he has experience working in North America, Central America, South Asia and Europe.

Max’s research and creative work has two primary focal areas. One focus is on the ‘cultural politics of climate change’ which refers to how the attitudes, intentions, beliefs and behaviors of individuals and groups shape (and are shaped by) the perceived spectrum of possible action in the context of climate change. A second focus is on the transformations of carbon-based economies and societies, with a particular emphasis on the interface of science and practical action, including policies. Through many connected projects and collaborations, his research commitments have been fueled by interests in how climate science and policy find meaning in people’s everyday lives, as well as how this, in turn, feeds back into science-policy decision-making.