Dr. Jayajit Chakraborty

Dr. Jayajit Chakraborty is a Professor in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology and the Founding Director of the Socio-Environmental & Geospatial Analysis (SEGA) Lab at UTEP. He is also an Affiliate Professor in the UTEP Department of Earth, Environmental and Resource Sciences. Prior to joining UTEP, Dr. Chakraborty was a Professor and Chair in the Geography Division of the Department of Geography, Environment, and Planning at the University of South Florida (Tampa, Florida) and also a visiting research scholar in the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia). He is currently serving as a member of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board, Work Group for Review of Science Supporting EPA Decisions, and the first EPA Environmental Justice Science Committee. He is also chairing the Scientific Review Panel for the EPA's Environmental Justice Screen (EJScreen) Mapping and Screening Tool and serving as a member of a National Academies Committee to support the White House Justice40 Initiative. 

As a broadly trained social scientist, Dr. Chakraborty’s research interests encompass a wide range of contemporary environmental and health issues. Specific topics include environmental justice, climate justice, social vulnerability to hazards/disasters, health equity, food security, and disability studies. His scholarship has examined environmental and social inequalities in multiple US urban areas and regions, Australia, India, and the US-Mexico border. His research utilizes a variety of traditional and emerging methodologies, including applications of GIScience and spatial statistical techniques, as well as social surveys and mixed-methods approaches. Information on his ongoing research projects is available here.

Dr. Chakraborty has (co)authored more than 110 peer-reviewed publications. His articles have appeared in prominent academic journals such as American Journal of Public Health, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Environment & Planning A, Environmental Research, Health & Place, Nature-Scientific Reports, Risk Analysis, Science of the Total Environment, Social Science & Medicine, and Urban Geography. He has coauthored/coedited four books, including The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Justice. He also coauthored a chapter for the US Government’s Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5). Dr. Chakraborty's research has been funded by the EPA, National Science Foundation (NSF), US Department of Transportation, US Department of Treasury,  American Association of Geographers (AAG), Australian Research Council, and many other agencies. He was also a recipient of the University of Texas System Faculty STARs Award and one of 16 scholars selected nationally to receive the NSF Geospatial Fellowship for Advancing COVID-19 Research and Education. Dr. Chakraborty has served on advisory committees and review panels for the AAG, EPA, NSF, National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, & Medicine (NASEM), US Department of Energy, and the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). He is currently an Associate Editor of the journal Environment, Development and Sustainability, and an editorial board member of Environmental Justice and International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health .

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=IsYhh44AAAAJ&hl=en

Global Rank: #1 in Environmental Hazards, #2 in Environmental Inequality and #3 in Urban Environments

Contact Information

Email: jchakraborty@utep.edu 

Phone: 1-915-747-6577
Fax: 1-915-747-5505

Old Main 318 & Prospect Hall 300