David Lopez-Carr

Biography

Professor López-Carr uses mixed methods to examine potential win-win outcomes for people and the environment. He researches links among population, health, livelihoods, and the environment for equitable sustainable development and conservation solutions through projects in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and California. López-Carr is a Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and recipient of the Outstanding Population Research Award of the Association of American Geographers. He has authored with colleagues and with more than 50 student mentees over 170 publications thanks to funding from over 50 fellowships, grants, and awards from NASA, NSF, NIH, NOAA, the UN, the Mellon and Fulbright Foundations, and numerous other sources. Professor López-Carr is an active in gender and ethnic diversity service and is former Chair of the UC Faculty Senate Committee on Affirmative Action, Diversity and Equity.

Research

Prof. López-Carr integrates mixed methods (including field-based surveys with remote sensing) to research dynamics among population (migration, fertility, mortality), health (infectious disease, nutrition, environmental exposures), livelihoods, and the environment with implications for equitable and sustainable development and conservation. Human impacts research includes deforestation in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, Guatemala and global monitoring of land degradation in collaboration with the UNCCD. Human adaptation research includes migration, land use, conservation, dietary, health and livelihood responses and outcomes to climate change in sub-Saharan Africa, China, Latin America, and California’s Central Valley.