Darrick Evensen

Darrick Evensen, Senior Research Scientist with the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS), has 15 years of experience researching public reactions to energy technologies, energy siting, and energy policies. He examines the policy implications of public knowledge, attitudes, and social movements in response to energy and environmental issues. His research has helped guide policy development at the UK Environment Agency, Welsh Government, Scottish Parliament, International Energy Agency, US Department of Agriculture, US National Park Service, and US Army Corps of Engineers.

Evensen was previously a Marie Curie Actions (European Commission) Research Fellow, based at Cardiff University (Wales), a Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Oberlin College (Ohio), and a US EPA STAR graduate research fellow, based at Cornell University (New York). He is currently an Associate Professor of Environmental Politics at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland). He has published over 60 peer-reviewed journal articles on public reactions to energy and environmental controversies, and has been directly responsible for over $1 million of research funding as principal or co-investigator.

His current research interests include public responses to energy/green transitions in a post-pandemic world, climate governance post-COP26, and factors constraining or facilitating use of the sub-surface for energy development (e.g., deep/shallow geothermal, coal, oil, and gas). He employs a range of methodologies, including interviews, focus groups, deliberative workshops, mass media content analysis, discourse analysis, and participant observation, but his recent work relies predominantly on advanced statistical modelling of survey data.