Laura López-Hoffman, Ph.D.
Assistant Research Professor of Environmental Policy
Assistant Professor of Natural Resources
Phone: (520) 626-9851
E-mail: lauralh@u.arizona.edu

Laura López Hoffman is an assistant professor at the School of Natural Resources, and an assistant research professor at the Udall Center for Public Policy Studies at the University of Arizona. Laura obtained her PhD from Stanford University in biology and her BA from Princeton University in ecology, public policy and Latin American studies. Prior to coming to the University of Arizona, she was an NSF post-doctoral fellow at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

Laura studies the linkages between the environment and human society. The objective of her research is to contribute to the development of policies and institutions that protect ecosystems while sustaining their contributions to human well-being. She uses interdisciplinary and comparative research approaches to integrate science and policy, in particular the concept of ecosystem services. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment serves as her conceptual framework for evaluating the complex interactions between ecosystems and species, the services they provide, and human well-being.

Laura is primarily interested in the ecology and policy of managing transboundary systems. Her current work focuses on the surface waters, aquifers, species, ecosystems and ecosystem services shared by the United States and Mexico.

Selected publications:

López-Hoffman, L, RG Varady, KW Flessa & P Balvanera. Harnessing transboundary ecosystem services to harmonize divided management. In press at Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

Aguilera-Taylor, I, A Corzo-Domínguez, G Muñoz-Castro & L López-Hoffman. 2007. Servicios ambientales de una plama endemica: importancia para la gente rural. Gaceta Ecologica, Instituto Nacional de Ecología, México, 84: 75-83. Invited submission to a special issue on ecosystem services in Mexico.

López-Hoffman, L, IE Monroe, E Narvaéz, M Martínez-Ramos & DD Ackerly. 2006. Sustainability of mangrove harvesting: How do harvesters' perceptions differ from ecological analysis? Ecology and Society 11(2): 14. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/iss2/art14/. In special issue: Do we need new management paradigms to achieve sustainability in tropical forests?

López-Hoffman, L, RG Varady & KW Flessa, editors. Conservation across the US-Mexico Border. University of Arizona Press. This will be the first volume in a new book series, Environmental Science, Law & Policy edited by M Miller, B Morehouse & J Overpeck.

Laura’s lab webpage: http://udallcenter.arizona.edu/lauralhlab