Gayl D. Ness

Professor Emeritus Gayl Ness passed away on July 4, 2024.

I work at the intersection of population growth, economic development and environmental change.  This is also a part of the larger field of Global Environmental Change.  I also have an area specialization in Asia, with special emphasis on Southeast Asia.  My first approach (1961 in Malaysia) was through organizational sociology, asking how public and private organizations affect, promote, or hinder economic development.  My approach has been both historical and ecological.  That is I have been interested in the past 500 hundred years of world modernization; and I have been especially tuned to the way geography or land forms affect social organization.  At present I am retired.  I continue to teach a Freshman seminar in Population, Development, Environment.  And I continue to work with Asian governments and organizations on urbanization and development.