Roberts honored for contributions to environmental sociology
Honoree Professor Timmons Roberts
J. Timmons Roberts, professor of sociology and director of William and Mary’s environmental science and policy program, was recently awarded the Buttel Distinguished Contribution Award for his contribution to the field of environmental sociology.
The Buttel Award, the highest award presented in the field, recognizes Roberts’ contributions to the field of environmental sociology. The award is presented to a current member of the Environment and Technology Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA) for outstanding scholarship, service and innovative teaching in the field of environmental sociology. Roberts serves as chair of the Environment and Technology Section of the ASA, but was excused from deliberation of the award candidates.
“This award is a great honor for me,” says Roberts, “since my peers have seen fit to recognize the body of all the work I have done. It is especially an honor since I had the pleasure of knowing Fred Buttel from co-authoring, organizing conferences and repeated intellectual, professional and social interactions with him. Fred was an amazing man, a wonderful person and a brilliant sociologist, bridging areas of rural sociology, political economy and environment.”
In addition to teaching sociology and directing the environmental science and policy program at the College, Roberts is a James Martin 21st Century School Fellow in the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University. He is one of the founding members of Project-Level Aid (PLAID), an interdisciplinary project based at William and Mary that tracks foreign aid by sovereign nations as well as multilateral entities such as the World Bank. He has published numerous articles and co-authored five books in the field of Environmental Sociology. He is a co-author of Greening Aid?: Understanding the Environmental Impact of Development Assistance, recently published by Oxford University Press. 
