Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 68.78
Liaison Amber Saxton
Submission Date Sept. 9, 2014
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

George Mason University
AC-9: Academic Research

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 11.08 / 12.00 Andrew Wingfield
Fellow for Sustainable Studies
New Century College
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Number of the institution’s faculty and/or staff engaged in sustainability research:
204

Total number of the institution’s faculty and/or staff engaged in research:
916

Number of academic departments (or the equivalent) that include at least one faculty or staff member that conducts sustainability research:
33

The total number of academic departments (or the equivalent) that conduct research:
52

A copy of the sustainability research inventory that includes the names and department affiliations of faculty and staff engaged in sustainability research:
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Names and department affiliations of faculty and staff engaged in sustainability research:

Names, research foci, and affiliations are available at the following locations:

Faculty whose research is listed under Sustainability by the George Mason Office of Research and Economic Development: http://researchfocus.gmu.edu/sustainability

Faculty whose research is listed under Human Rights by the George Mason Office of Research and Economic Development: http://researchfocus.gmu.edu/node/472

See pp. 28-31 of George Mason's 2013 United Nations Global Compact Communication on Progress for faculty doing research in the 4 UNGC focus areas of Human Rights, Labor, Environment, and Anti-Corruption: http://unglobalcompact.org/system/attachments/22978/original/George_Mason_Univ_UNGC_COP.pdf?1372432487


A brief description of the methodology the institution followed to complete the research inventory:

George Mason's Office of Research and Economic Development includes on its web site (see links above) a list of faculty members engaged in sustainability research (sub-areas are climate, energy, environment, and transportation). The ORED web site also lists faculty engaged in human rights and social justice research and we have counted these individuals as well. Finally, George Mason's 2013 United Nations Global Compact Communication on Progress lists faculty who do research in the 4 UNGC areas of human rights, labor, environment and anticorruption, all of which fall under the umbrella of sustainability. Faculty members named on more than one of these lists have only been counted once.


A brief description of notable accomplishments during the previous three years by faculty and/or staff engaged in sustainability research:

Dr. Thomas Lovejoy, Professor of Environmental Science and Policy, was awarded the Blue Planet Prize in 2012 for lifetime accomplishment in biodiversity conservation research and advocacy. Lovejoy also received the 2013 Leaders for a Living Planet Award from the World Wildlife Fund.
Researchers at George Mason's Center for Climate Change Communication (4C) are engaged in a multi-year social science research collaboration with colleagues at Yale University entitled "Climate Change in the American Mind." 4C researchers are also running a funded project to train television meteorologists to teach the public about the science behind climate change.
Dr. Jagadish Shukla, a George Mason climate dynamics researcher and a lead author on the 2007 IPCC report that shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore, received the 2012 Padma Shri Award from the government of India for "exceptional and distinguished service in the field of science and engineering."


The website URL where information about sustainability research is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

This information is for FY2014


The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.