Thomas W. Hoekstra, Ph.D.

Dr. Thomas Hoekstra, a founding member of Sustainability International, LLC, received his Ph.D. in Wildlife Ecology from Purdue University in 1971. His work on the development and application of ecological theory culminated in the influential book Toward A Unified Ecology, co-authored with Dr. T.F.H. Allen (Columbia University Press, 1992). He was co-editor (with Dr. Moshe Shachak) of Arid Land Management–Toward Ecological Sustainability (University of Illinois Press, 1999). Dr. Hoekstra was the senior science advisor to the applied sustainability research project Local Unit Criteria and Indicator Development Project (LUCID) and one of the authors of the final report. With T.F.H. Allen and Joseph A. Tainter he wrote Supply-Side Sustainability (Columbia University Press, 2003), the first approach to sustainability that integrates ecological and social science. Thomas Hoekstra co-founded and currently serves as President of the Board of Directors of The Sustainability Institute, a nonprofit organization established to conduct sustainability research, technology application, and education to improve human well-being.

Dr. Hoekstra has been a member of the faculty at the University of Vermont and Colorado State University. Among other accomplishments, he administered a multinational study to monitor and evaluate Middle Eastern watersheds in Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority territories, and Turkey.

He was the Director of the Inventory and Monitoring Institute, USDA Forest Service, National Office, where he provided guidance to Forest Service managers and planners. As co-manager and lead sustainability expert of the Forest, Rangeland, and Associated Waters National Assessment for the Forest Service, he developed the initial sustainability framework for the Resource Assessment and Sustainability Reporting project. In 1996 Dr. Hoekstra was presented a Distinguished Agricultural Alumni award by Purdue University.

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