Title: Professor
Institution: University of Massachusetts Boston
Address: 100 Morrissey Blvd, Boston, Massachusetts 02125
Email: paul.kirshen@umb.edu
Phone: (978) 831-4391
Research Interests: Water resources management, Coastal zone management, Infrastructure management, Climate change adaptation
Biographical Sketch:
Paul Kirshen is Professor in the School for the Environment of the University of Massachusetts Boston. He has more than 40 years of experience serving as Principal Investigator of complex, interdisciplinary, participatory research related to water resources, coastal zone, and infrastructure management, and climate variability and change. He was a Lead Author of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (water resources of North America) and the 2014 US National Climate Assessment (Coastal Zone). He works at scales ranging from local to international and has received both academic and civic research awards. As the founding Research Director of the Stone Living Lab, he has been managing and overseeing research on nature-based adaptation approaches in Boston Harbor since 2020. In addition, he teaches Climate Change Adaptation Planning. Other recent research initiatives include multi-criteria flood management of the Kosi River, Bihar, India, and management of groundwater and surface water systems to minimize embankment failure on Cape Cod Massachusetts. He has well over 100 peer-reviewed publications and many technical reports. He received his ScB in Engineering from Brown University and his MS and PhD in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.