Ken Mitchell
Ken Mitchell is Professor of Geography at Rutgers University . He grew up in Northern Ireland and received his Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Chicago (1974). He has published more than 140 professional works on the human dimensions of environmental hazards including: Community Response to Coastal Erosion (1974), The Long Road to Recovery (1996); and Crucibles of Hazard: Megacities and Disasters in Transition (1999).
Ken is a Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science and has served on National Research Council committees for natural disasters, vulnerability, mitigation and mudflow prediction. He chaired the Council’s Ad Hoc Committee on the International Decade for Natural Hazard Reduction (1985-87). He also chaired the U.S. Scientific Committee on the Outer Continental Shelf (1979-1982) and the International Geographical Union’s Study Group on the Disaster Vulnerability of Megacities, as well as founding the Association of American Geographers Hazards Specialty Group, and the international journal Global Environmental Change.
Among Ken’s recent research contributions are papers on: the re-conception and redesign of disaster recovery policies; the evolution of natural disasters in New Jersey during the 20th century; and an advocacy piece on an expanded role for natural hazards education in the UNESCO’s World Heritage Site Program (in preparation). He is currently directing an NSF-RAPID Research project on the redefinition of storm surge risks in the wake of Super Storm Sandy.