Prof. Wil Burns

Dr. Wil Burns is the Associate Director of the Environmental Policy & Culture program at Northwestern University. He is the Co-Founding Director of the Institute for Responsible Carbon Removal at American University. Previously, he served as the Founding Director of the Energy Policy & Climate program at Johns Hopkins University. He has also taught at the University of Chicago, Stanford University, and the University of California-Berkeley. He also served as Assistant Secretary of State for Policy for the state of Wisconsin and worked in the environmental non-profit sector for more than twenty years.

He is the former Co-Chair of the International Environmental Law Section of the American Branch of the International Law Association, President of the Association of Environmental Studies & Sciences (AESS). He was the 2019 recipient of AESS’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Scholarship and Service in the field. His research agenda includes climate geoengineering, climate loss and damage, and the effectiveness of the European Union’s Emissions Trading System. He received his Ph.D. in International Law from the University of Wales-Cardiff School of Law and is the author of more than 90 publications.