Biography

Adam Abelkop is a Lecturer in Law and the Teaching Fellow of the L.L.M. Program in Environmental Law & Policy. He is responsible for all aspects of the program, including student advising and teaching. He researches public health and environmental risk regulation, focusing on how natural science and economic principles are translated into regulatory and judicial decision making.

Adam earned his BA from Wake Forest University (2007) and his JD from the University of Iowa College of Law (2010). He is a doctoral candidate in Indiana University’s Ph.D. in Public Policy Program (expected spring 2017), jointly administered by the School of Public and Environmental Affairs and the Department of Political Science. In his dissertation, he employs multiple research methodologies to explore the ways in which regulation and litigation complement one another in the governance of chemical risks. Adam is also the lead author of a recent book entitled Persistent, Bioaccumulative, and Toxic (PBT) Chemicals: Technical Aspects, Policies, and Practices (CRC Press, 2016), which assesses the science and law underlying the identification and regulation of PBT chemicals and persistent organic pollutants around the world.

Adam has taught undergraduate courses on law and public affairs, environmental policy, and climate change policy at Indiana University. From 2011 to 2012, he was research adviser to Vice President Al Gore on his most recent book, The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change. Adam has been a research assistant for Professor Jonathan Carlson at the University of Iowa where he also served as a member of the Journal of Corporation Law. At Indiana University, he has been a research assistant for Dean John Graham. Adam has also coached intercollegiate policy debate at both schools.