David Lopez-Carr

David López-Carr is Professor of Geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he directs the Human-Environment Dynamics Lab (HED) and serves as Associate Dean of the University of California Education Abroad Program (UCEAP), and Editor in Chief of Populations. After receiving a PhD in Geography from the University of North Carolina in 2002, he was a NIH post-doctoral fellow in Biostatistics in the School of Public Health and Carolina Population Center. He has lived, worked, and traveled in over 70 countries worldwide and speaks Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, and rudimentary Q’eqchí Maya. Professor López-Carr uses mixed methods to examine potential win-win outcomes for people and the environment. He has authored over 230 scientific publications with a focus on links among population, health, rural livelihood vulnerability and resilience, agriculture, and marine and forest resource use and conservation through ongoing projects in California, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. His scholarship has been supported by over 10 million USD from over 80 fellowships, grants, and awards from NASA, NOAA, NSF, NIH, the Mellon, two Fulbright Fellowships, and numerous other sources. With co-authors, he was awarded the 2024 Ecological Society of America's (ESA) Sustainability Science Award and the Frontiers Planet Prize from the US National Academy of Sciences. López-Carr was awarded the Research Excellence Award from the Population Specialty Group (2017) and the Human Dimensions of Global Change Specialty Group (2024) the Association of American Geographers (AAG). Named a National Academy of Sciences Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow in 2013, in 2014 he was elected an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow ‘’for advancing our scientific understanding of the coupled process of human population dynamics and environmental change.’’ López-Carr has received several teaching and mentoring awards, including the 2022 AAG Excellence in Mentoring Award and the 2024 Conference of Latin American Geography Teaching Award. Leadership in promoting DEI, including as Chair of the UCSB and the UC DEI Faculty Senate Committees and on a host of related committees was recognized with the 2013 UCSB Faculty Senate Exceptional Service Award and the 2025 (AAG) Human Dimensions of Global Change (HDGC) Specialty Group Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Award.