Matthew Hamilton
About Matthew's Work
Matt Hamilton is an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Michigan. His research focuses on understanding human adaptation to climate change in fire-prone ecosystems. He is particularly interested in how social and organizational networks influence wildfire risk mitigation, and how people conceptualize wildfire in mental models. Matt came to the University of Michigan from the University of California-Davis, where he conducted research on how stakeholder networks address cooperation challenges in climate change adaptation governance in the Lake Victoria region, East Africa. Also while at UC Davis he worked with specialists from several Central American countries to develop a low-cost technique for gathering environmental and social data on water resources using high-resolution satellite imagery as base layers in participatory mapping exercises.
Before beginning his studies at UC Davis, Matt was Developing Regions Program Coordinator at the Association of American Geographers. Earlier, he spent several years in Latin America working with local stakeholders to improve conservation of natural resources and ecosystem services, first as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Paraguay and later as an agroforestry extension volunteer with the Golden Lion Tamarin Association in Brazil. He has an M.Sc. in International Agricultural Development from UC Davis and B.A. from Dartmouth College.
