Research Staff

Matt Houser

Associate Research Scientist
Research Staff
Matt Houser
Associate Research Scientist
Horn Point Laboratory

Bio

Dr. Matthew Houser joined the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Horn Point Laboratory as its first Regenerative Agriculture Fellow.  This is a new partnership between The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) to build and execute collaborative projects that will advance their collective goals in regenerative agriculture and sustainable agricultural landscapes in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Houser is an environmental sociologist who conducts interdisciplinary research programs to inform the development of “policy and engagement strategies toward increasing the short- and long-term resilience of managed ecosystems and human communities to environmental change.”

Previously, he was a Faculty Fellow and Assistant Research Scientist with the Environmental Resilience Institute and Department of Sociology at Indiana University. Other topics Matt has researched include agricultural nitrogen fertilizer management, farmers’ decision-making in response to climate extremes, and the general public's climate change beliefs and support for policies to reduce its impact. 

Areas of Expertise

  • Human dimensions of environmental change
  • Socio-Ecological Systems Approaches
  • Public Views of Climate Change
  • Farmer Decision-Making
  • Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

Education

  • Michigan State University, 2018, PhD, Sociology
  • Michigan State University, 2015, MA, Sociology
  • The Pennsylvania State University, 2013, BP, Interdisciplinary Studies