Michael currently focuses the majority of his time with the Visualizing and Quantifying the Social Contribution of Future Business team of the Global KAITEKI Center at ASU. The team is developing long-range strategic planning tools to support the Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Group in its mission and vision to realize KAITEKI—sustainable well-being of people, society, and Earth systems. Another of his current projects, GLOCULL, partners universities, cities, non-profit organizations, and entrepreneurs to develop local sustainability solutions at the nexus of food, water, and energy in society, with a goal to compare these efforts with those of partners in the Netherlands, Sweden, South Africa, Brazil, and Germany.
Past activities have included:
- contributing to projects on climate preparedness, resilience, and adaptation led by the U.S. White House Council on Environmental Quality;
- evaluating Science Outside the Lab, a policy immersion program to help PhD scientists and engineers learn about the relationships between science and government in the U.S.;
- analyzing efforts by the U.S. Global Change Research Program to manage research to be useable by city, state, tribal, and national policy-makers;
- staffing the Expert & Citizen Assessment of Science & Technology (ECAST) network’s efforts to use citizen deliberations and expert analysis to inform U.S. Department of Energy decision-making about siting nuclear waste;
- assessing and advancing responsible research and innovation across European Union member state and associated country science and technology funding (European Commission funded project: NewHoRRIzon), specifically focused on future and emerging technologies; sustainable food systems and the bioeconomy.