Dr. Shanti Gamper Rabindran

I am a Professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. I also hold secondary appointments at the School of Law and the Department of Economics at the university. I served as the August-Wilhelm Scheer Visiting Professor at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. 

My book America’s Energy Gamble:  People, Economy and Planet (Cambridge University Press 2022) details how political, financial and legal institutions entrench fossil fuel dependency, but how efforts to shift to renewable energy are gaining traction. My edited volume The Shale Dilemma: A Global Perspective on Fracking and Shale Development (University of Pittsburgh Press 2018)  details the United States pursuit of shale development and the impacts of shale extraction. It also compares the decisions of Germany and France to eschew shale development and those of England (initially), Poland, China, Argentina and South Africa to pursue shale development.

My earlier work focuses on risk management in the chemical sector (e.g. the impacts of regulatory, disclosure and corporate social responsibility programs on pollution, industrial accidents and worker exposure to chemicals), and the economic benefits from remediating hazardous waste sites. In 2021-22, I served on National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine study panel on Enhancing the U.S. Chemical Economy through Investments in Fundamental Research in the Chemical Sciences. I have also examined the environment and health impacts of development policies (e.g., piped water provision on infant mortality rates in Brazil and the impact of NAFTA on the pollution-intensity of US-Mexican trade).

I am honored to serve on the Advisory Board of the Ohio River Valley Institute, a regional thinktank and on the Advisory Board of Solar United Neighbors Pennsylvania.