About
Dr. Vijay Ramprasad Rao
Environmental social scientist. The name "Tailenders" comes from his research on tailenders: the households at the end of every channel, whether a canal, a subsidy or a scheme, who receive least and are counted last.
Students describe his teaching and mentorship as highly influential in their career choices, and cherish his classes for their rigorous yet inclusive and friendly learning environment.
- Training
- PhD in Geography, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; MS in Environmental Policy and Planning, University of Michigan; began at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
- Research
- More than $3 million in funding from NSF, NASA and FORMAS; more than 20 peer-reviewed articles, including in Nature, Nature Sustainability, Nature Climate Change, BioScience and World Development.
- Advisory
- IPCC, IUFRO, UNICEF, and governments in India, Bolivia and the United States.
- Field
- Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uganda and Bolivia; fieldwork in Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Telugu and Spanish.
- Press
- The New York Times, Financial Times, The Verge, Science News, Mongabay.