Kaveh Madani

Kaveh Madani is an environmental scientist, educator, and activist, working on complex human-natural systems at the interface of science, policy, and society. He is a Henry Hart Rice Senior Fellow at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, affiliated with the Yale Program in Iranian Studies and the Department of Political Science. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Environmental Policy (CEP) of Imperial College London and a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute.

He has previously served as the Deputy Vice President of Iran in his position as the Deputy Head of Iran’s Department of Environment. He has also served as the Vice President of the UN Environment Assembly Bureau and Chief of Iran’s Department of Environment’s International Affairs and Conventions Center. He held different strategic roles during his public service and led Iran’s delegation in different major intergovernmental meetings and negotiations.

Madani has worked on issues such as water management, environmental policy, energy systems, food security, climate change impacts and adaptation, sustainable development, and transboundary-conflicts and negotiations in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Middle East. He frequently appears in the media and has been featured in different environmental documentaries.

Prior to joining Yale, Madani had faculty positions at Imperial College London (tenured) and the University of Central Florida (assistant professor). Over his career, he has held research and teaching positions at different universities around the world, including Stockholm University, Cornell University, Lund University, UC Irvine, UC Davis, UC Riverside, K.N. Toosi University of Technology, and Dalian University of Technology. He is currently serving as the Associate Editor of the Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management as well as Sustainable Cities and Society.

Education
B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the University of Tabriz
MA in Water Resources from Lund University
Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Davis

Areas of expertise
Complex human-natural systems analysis, environmental security and diplomacy, water resources management, energy systems, environmental policy and economics, climate change, and sustainable development.