Professor Bhaskar Vira

Professor Bhaskar Vira, FAcSS, is Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education and Environmental Sustainability at the University of Cambridge. He is Professor of Political Economy at the Department of Geography, a Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, and Head of Programme for the Africa Climate Collaborative and Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program.

Trained as an economist, Bhaskar’s research focuses on the political economy of land-use and landscape-level strategies, water use and management, forest management, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services and human well-being, with a specific focus on South Asia. He works with a number of PhD students and early career researchers on his broad interests in the political economy of environment and development, and has collaborations with colleagues in both academic and non-academic institutions in South Asia and around the world. He is currently leading a major initiative on Decent Work and Youth Livelihoods. He has led large-scale applied research projects that involve interdisciplinary conversations across the natural and social sciences, and contributes regularly to policy advisory processes across the science-policy interface.