Adil Najam

Adil Najam served as a Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), work for which the IPCC was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with Al Gore. In 2009, Najam was appointed to serve on the UN Committee for Development Policy, a 24-member panel that advises the UN Economic and Social Council. In the fall of 2014, he will serve as the inaugural dean of the new Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies.

In addition to Boston University, Najam has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Massachusetts, and at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. He has written over 100 scholarly papers and book chapters and serves on the editorial boards of many scholarly journals. He is a past winner of MIT’s Goodwin Medal for Effective Teaching, the Fletcher School Paddock Teaching Award, the Stein Rokan Award of the International Political Science Association, the ARNOVA Emerging Scholar Award, and the Pakistan Television Medal for Outstanding Achievement. Najam is frequently interviewed by and writes for the popular media and is the founding editor of the blog Pakistaniat.com.

Najam is an expert in international diplomacy and development. His research interests include sustainable development, Muslim and South Asian politics, environmental politics in developing countries, and philanthropy among immigrant communities in the United States. Much of his work has focused on longer-term global policy problems, especially those related to human well-being and sustainable development. He contributed to Pakistan’s first environmental policy document, as well as to that country’s report to the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, has worked closely with governments and civil society in both industrialized and developing countries, and regularly collaborates with the United Nations. Najam is a Senior Fellow at the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), a Visiting Fellow at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), and serves on the Boards of the Pakistan Institute for Environment-Development Action Research (PIEDAR) and the Center for Global Studies at the University of Victoria, Canada.

Najam’s recent books include: Pakistanis in America: Portrait of a Giving Community (2006); Trade and Environment Negotiations: A Resource Book (2006); Envisioning a Sustainable Development Agenda for Trade and Environment (2006); Environment, Development and Human Security: Perspectives from South Asia (2003); and Civic Entrepreneurship (2002). He serves on the editorial boards of various scholarly publications including: Global Governance, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly; The Journal of Ecological Economics; Yearbook of International Co-operation on Environment and Development; Annual Editions: Environment; and The Encyclopedia of Earth.