ISSE Staff
Bruce E. Tonn
Program Leader, ISSE Environmental Sustainability;
Professor, UT's Department of Political Science;
Director, UT's Urban and Regional Planning Program;
Senior Researcher, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Office Phone: (865) 974-4552
Email: btonn@utk.edu
Ph.D., Urban and Regional Planning, Northwestern University;
M.S., City and Regional Planning, Graduate School of Design and Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University;
B.S., Civil Engineering, Stanford University
Dr. Tonn joined the faculty at the University of Tennessee in August of 1999. He also maintains a part-time staff research position in the Environmental Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he has worked since 1983. Dr. Tonn worked with the Energy, Environment and Resources Center (now merged with ISSE) staff on numerous projects over the past decade and a half.
Dr. Tonn is an interdisciplinary researcher who conducts research in environmental and energy policy, future studies, decision making under uncertainty, and the impacts of information technology on society. He is a consulting editor for the international, peer-reviewed journal Futures and is an internationally known futurist. He has authored/co-authored over 85 refereed journal articles and over 150 technical publications, many with ISSE staff. He was co-principle investigator for the National Center for Environmental Decision-making Research (NCEDR). He served on a special peer-review panel for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Science Advisory Board on its Integrated Risk Project. He has also served on peer-review panels for the National Science Foundation, EPA, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Many of his current projects involve evaluating the benefits of U.S. Department of Energy programs, such as the Industrial Assessment Center Program, the Best Practices Program, and the Automotive Lightweighting Materials Program. Dr. Tonn is also evaluating potential synergies among the numerous energy-efficiency programs being offered by the New York Energy Research and Development Administration.
Current unfunded projects are focusing on the role of public participation in a democratic society, an alternative to the proposed Kyoto Protocol framework, and the use of scenarios in global climate change policy analysis and modeling. Through his department at the university, Dr. Tonn has an on-going relationship with Cocke County, Tennessee, in exploring sustainable development.
For additional information, view Dr. Tonn’s resume (a .pdf file).
Selected Publications:
- Tonn, B. 2006. “A Methodology for Quantifying and Aggregating the Impacts of Environmental Scanning Leads,” (Submitted to Technological Forecasting and Social Change).
- Tonn, B. 2006. “State-Level Benefits of Energy Efficiency,” (Submitted to Energy Policy).
- Tonn, B., And Conrad, F. 2006. “Thinking about the Future: A Psychological Analysis,” (Submitted to Social Behavior and Personality).
- Tonn, B. and MacGregor, D. 2006, “A Singular Chain of Events,” (Submitted to Futures).
- Tonn, B. 2006. “Beliefs about Human Extinction,” (Submitted to Futures).
- Tonn, B. 2006. “The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change: A Global Scale Tranformative Initiative,” Futures (Forthcoming).