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Edward Parson

Associate Professor of Public Policy

Contact:
Telephone: (617) 495-1404
Fax: (617)-495-8963
Email: ted_parson@harvard.edu

Experience

Edward A. Parson is Associate Professor of Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and a Senior Research Associate in Harvard''s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Parson''s research interests lie in two related fields: environmental policy, and negotiations. His environmental research stresses its international dimensions, including policy coordination, the development and management of international institutions, negotiation, and conflict resolution. Current projects include studies of scientific and technical assessment in international environmental policy-making; the development of international cooperation to protect the ozone layer; and the development of a series of policy exercises to study alternative approaches to implementing and financing international cooperation on global climate change.

In negotiations, Parson''s interests include the use of models and expert assessment bodies to support negotiations; processes of learning in bargaining under uncertainty; and how negotiations change as the number of parties increase. He has developed a series of simulated multi-party negotiation exercises that are used for policy research and executive training in ten countries.

Parson holds degrees in Physics from the University of Toronto and in Management Science from the University of British Columbia, and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Harvard. He has worked and consulted for the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) of the US Congress, the United States EPA, the United Nations Environment Program, the Commission of the European Communities, Environment Canada, and the Privy Council Office of the Government of Canada.

He currently serves on the NAS Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change, and on the National Assessment Synthesis Team for the first U.S. National Assessment of the Impacts of Climate Change and Variability.