Harini Nagendra is an Indian ecologist who uses satellite remote sensing coupled with field studies of biodiversity, archival research, institutional analysis, and community interviews to examine the factors shaping the social-ecological sustainability of forests and cities in the south Asian context. Her areas of interest include Urban sustainability, Ecology and development, Land change, Biodiversity and conservation.
Early and Personal Life
Nagendra was born in 1972 in Salem, Tamil Nadu, India. Born to a botanist mother, Nagendra was inspired by her to pursue a career in the field of science. Nagendra is married and has a daughter.
Nagendra is currently a professor of sustainability at the Azim Premji University, Bangalore. She coordinates the Centre for Urban Sustainability in India at Azim Premji University. Larger global crisis of sustainability motivates Nagendra to research on the subject. She was a visiting researcher at the University of California, San Diego in 1998. She was an independent researcher from 2003 to 2013. She has worked in a variety of contexts in forests and cities of South Asia and globally. Nagendra served as Hubert H HumphreyDistinguished Visiting Professor at Macalester College, Saint Paul, Minnesota in 2013. She has over 150 scientific publications to her name, writes widely on her research through Indian newspapers and other forums. She also engages with international research, including being on the Steering Committee of the Programme for Ecosystem Change and Society and a Lead Author on the 5th IPCC Report – Working Group III. Nagendra's recent book “Nature in the City: Bengaluru in the Past, Present, and Future” examines the transformation of human-nature interactions in Bangalore from the 6th century CE to the present, addressing the implications of such change for the urban sustainability of fast-growing cities in the global South.
Awards
In 2006, Nagendra received the Cozzarelli Prize from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. She is a recipient of a 2013 Elinor Ostrom Senior Scholar award for her research and practice on issues of the urban commons. In 2017, Nagendra received Clarivate award for interdisciplinary research in India.
