Download Biographic Information Michael P. Nelson, Ph.D (mpnelson@msu

Biographic Information
Michael P. Nelson, Ph.D ([email protected]) is an environmental scholar, writer, teacher,
speaker, consultant, professor of environmental ethics and philosophy. He currently holds the
Ruth H. Spaniol Endowed Chair of Renewable Resources, and serves as the Lead-Principal
Investigator for the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest Long-Term Ecological Research site, at
Oregon State University. From 2007-2012 he held a triple-joint appointment in the Lyman
Briggs College, the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, and the Department of Philosophy at
Michigan State University; from 2005-2007 he was a professor of philosophy at the University
of Idaho; and from 1993-2004 he held a joint appointment in philosophy and natural resources at
the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
He is the philosopher in residence of the Isle Royale Wolf-Moose Project in Lake Superior
(www.isleroyalewolf.org), the longest continuous study of a predator-prey system in the world.
Michael is the co-founder and co-director (with John A. Vucetich) of the Conservation Ethics
Group, an award-winning environmental ethics consultancy group fusing ethics with social and
ecological science (www.conservationethics.org).
Michael’s research and teaching focus is environmental ethics and philosophy: from the concept
of wilderness to topics in the philosophy of ecology, from hunting ethics to theories of
environmental education, from topics in wildlife ecology and conservation biology to questions
about science and advocacy and the philosophical work of Aldo Leopold. He is the author of
many professional and popular articles, and the author or editor of four books, in and around the
area of environmental ethics, including The Great New Wilderness Debate (1998), The
Wilderness Debate Rages On: Continuing the Great New Wilderness Debate (2008), and
American Indian Environmental Ethics: An Ojibwa Case Study (2004), all with J. Baird
Callicott, and the award-winning book Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in
Peril (2010) with Kathleen Dean Moore. Michael is called upon regularly by various
government agencies and conservation organizations to assist with understanding the ethical
implications of natural resource management decisions. Michael holds a Ph.D. in philosophy
from Lancaster University, England. He lives in Corvallis, Oregon with his three cats, two dogs,
and one wife.