Gregory L Simon
About
I am a Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Denver where I am Co-Director of the Community Collaborative Research Center. I hold several other Affiliated Faculty positions at both CU Denver and CU Boulder. Before moving to Colorado in 2009, I spent two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University where I was a Principal Investigator in Stanford’s Spatial History Project Lab. I have held subsequent Visiting Scholar positions at UCLA, Stanford and ETH Zurich. I hold a PhD in Geography (University Washington), a MS in Environmental Science and Management (University of California Santa Barbara) and a BA in Economics (University of California Santa Cruz). Among other appointments, I am a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) -- Climate Change Subcommittee. I am also the Environment and Society Section Editor of the journal Geography Compass. I served as Chair of the Cultural and Political Ecology (CAPE) Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) and have been a Core Advisor to the United Nations Foundation.
Education and Training
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2009 Postdoctoral Fellow
Lane Center for the American West
Stanford University
​
2007 Doctor of Philosophy in Geography
University of Washington, Seattle
​
2001 Master of Environmental Science and
Management
Donald Bren School of Environmental Science &
Management, University of California, Santa
Barbara
​
1997 Bachelor of Arts in Economics
University of California, Santa Cruz
​
Academic Positions
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2022- Professor
Department of Geography and Environmental
Sciences
University of Colorado Denver
2018-21 Director of Graduate Programs
2024-27 Department of Geography and Environmental
Sciences
University of Colorado Denver
​
2015-22 Associate Professor
Department of Geography and Environmental
Sciences
University of Colorado Denver
​
2009-15 Assistant Professor
Department of Geography and Environmental
Sciences
University of Colorado Denver
​
2017- Faculty Affiliate and Adjunct Associate
Professor
Department of Geography
University of Colorado Boulder
​
2016-20 Faculty Affiliate
Center for Science and Technology Policy
Research
University of Colorado Boulder
​
2014- Adjunct Faculty
Department of Geography
University of Colorado Boulder
​
2013- Faculty Affiliate
Urban and Regional Planning
University of Colorado Denver
Other Scholarly Appointments
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2024 Visiting Scholar, Geographies of Disasters Group, Institute of Geography, University of Bern
​
2019 Visiting Scholar, Dept of Humanities, Social and
Political Sciences, Center for Security Studies,
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
(ETH Zurich)
​
2016-17 Visiting Researcher, Institute of Environment
and Sustainability and Faculty Visitor,
Department of Geography, University of
California Los Angeles
​
Sum 2013 Visiting Scholar, Center for Sustainable
Communities University of California Los Angeles
​
Sum 2013 Visiting Scholar and Principal Investigator, Spatial History Project Stanford University
​
Sum 2011 Visiting Scholar and Principal Investigator, Spatial History Project Stanford University
Other Leadership Positions
​
2023- Co-Director
Community Collaborative Research Center (CCRC)
University of Colorado Denver
​
2022-25 Appointed Member, Board of Scientific
Counselors (Climate Change Sub-committee)
United States Environmental Protection Agency
2020- Co-Founder and Co-Convenor
Political Ecology Remote Collective (PERC)
​
2016-23 Editor, Human-Environment Section
Geography Compass
2010-13 Core Advisor
United Nations Global Alliance for Clean
Cookstoves