is coauthor of the textbook Environmental Problems and Human Behavior (2nd ed., 2002) and coeditor of numerous National Research Council publications. He coauthored (with Paul Dietz and Elinor Ostrom) the 2003 Science article “The Struggle to Govern the Commons,” which won the 2005 Sustainability Science Award from the Ecological Society of America. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Psychological Association. He holds a B.A. degree from Amherst College and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Clark University, all in psychology.

RICHARD THOMAS is the senior vice president and chief underwriting officer for the Commercial Insurance Group of American International Group (AIG). He has held a number of positions at AIG, including president of its Risk Management’s Industry Specialties Group and overseer of its planning and implementation of Y2K strategies for casualty underwriting worldwide. Previously, he worked with Aetna Life & Casualty, The Hartford Group, INA/CIGNA, and Reliance Insurance Companies. He serves on the M-200, an association of risk managers of multinational corporations, and on the Board of the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute, which he has also chaired. He also serves on advisory boards for the Risk Management and Decision Processes Center of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, the Center for Terrorism Risk Management Policy of the RAND Corporation, and the College of Mathematics and Physical Sciences at the University of Maryland. He has advised the U.S. Treasury Department on insurance issues related to the Resource Conservation and Recovery and “Superfund” Acts, and he has testified before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee on insurance programs for large construction projects. He holds a B.A. degree from Hiram College.

KATHLEEN J. TIERNEY is professor of sociology and director of natural hazards research and applications at the University of Colorado. Previously, she was professor of sociology and director of the disaster research center at the University of Delaware. With more than 25 years of experience in the disaster field, she has been involved in research on the social aspects and impacts of major earthquakes in California and Japan, floods in the Midwest, Hurricanes Hugo and Andrew, and many other natural and technological disaster events. Since September 2001 she has been directing a study on the organizational and community response in New York following the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. She has a Ph.D. degree in sociology from the Ohio State University.