Dr. Jan Sendzimir :: Sustainability Science Program :: Center for International Development

Sustainability Science Program

Dr. Jan Sendzimir
Center for International Development
Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
503B Rubenstein Building
79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
USA
Tel: (1) 617-384-5737
Fax: (1) 617-496-8753
Email: jan_sendzimir "at" ksg.harvard.edu
Group affiliation: Research Fellow

Jan Sendzimir is a Research Fellow in Sustainability Science in the Sustainability Science Program at Harvard's Center for International Development and a Research Scholar in the Risk and Vulnerability Program at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria. Originally trained as an ecologist, Sendzimir studies non-linear change in complex adaptive systems, especially transition between regimes that manage social-ecological systems. He works with concepts (resilience, adaptive capacity, vulnerability) and tools (adaptive management) that address the challenge of change that is difficult or impossible to reverse. He currently directs work packages in three EU 6th framework projects (NeWater, CAVES and SCENES) on research applied to management policy issues with complex combinations of ecological, economic and socio-political factors that occur at different scales within relatively large areas such as river basins, major watersheds and mountain chains. To help integrate science, policy and local practice he uses conceptual and formal modeling to facilitate participatory processes (group model building, scenario development) that guide research and policy development related to the sustainable development of communities and ecosystems in five river systems: the Narew (Poland), the Oder and Barycz rivers (Poland), the Tisza river (Ukraine, Romania, and Hungary) and the Amudarya river (Uzbekistan) as well as two arid regions (Sahel and Kalahari). Following a focus on ecological contributions to sustainability, he collaborates with landscape ecologists in the study of environmental flows, particularly the dynamics of water, nutrients, propagules and fish in river floodplains.