Thomas Webler

Dr. Thomas Webler

Senior Fellow (Alumni)

Thomas Webler is a founding member and a senior researcher at the Social and Environmental Research Institute in Massachusetts USA. He retired as an Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire in 2021. He earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech, an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and a Ph.D. from the Environmental Science and Policy Program, Clark University. His specialty is community engagement in decision making about controversial technologies. Before joining Keene State in 2016, he was a tenured faculty member at Western Washington University in the Institute for Energy Studies. He still teaches courses in environmental and energy policy making, climate change, and the energy transition. His research centers on siting of controversial energy facilities. He most recently helped to edit a special issue of Risk Analysis on the social amplification of risk.

  • Public participation
  • Risk governance
  • Energy transition
  • Webler T. 2022. Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning Advisory Panel. 28 February 2022. Challenges and opportunities for consent-based siting.
  • Webler T. 2022 Universidad Cientifica del Sur, Lima Peru. 4 February 2022. Human aspects of oil spills.
  • Webler, T, and Tuler, S. 2019. Community consent: An alternative framing for reaching agreements about wind turbines and wind farms projects. North American Wind Energy Academy/WINDTECH 2019. UMass, Amherst, MA. October 14-16, 2019.
  • Webler, T. 2018. Understanding community consent in risk decision making: Theoretical foundations, principles, and challenges. Special workshop on risk. Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies. Potsdam, Germany 28-29 June 2018.
  • Webler, T. 2017. Rapid assessment of stakeholder opinions on high volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF).  American Association of Geographers. Boston, MA 6-10 April 2017.
  • Webler, T. 2017. Panelist. Symposium on European and North American research in Energy Transitions. American Association of Geographers Boston, MA. 6-10 April 2017.
  • Webler, T. 2015. Concern assessment in the analytic-deliberative process. Annual Meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis.  Arlington, VA, 9 December 2015.  
  • 59. Cabaniss, A., Jakubowski, K., and Webler, T. 2019. Getting to Action. National Marine Educators Association Annual Meeting. Durham, NH. July 23, 2019.  
  • 58. Webler, T. 2018. Understanding community consent in risk decision making: Theoretical foundations, principles, and challenges. Special workshop on risk. Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies. Potsdam, Germany 28-29 June 2018.  
  • 57. Webler, T. 2017. Rapid assessment of stakeholder opinions on high volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF).  American Association of Geographers. Boston, MA 6-10 April 2017.  
  • 56. Webler, T. 2017. Panelist. Symposium on European and North American research in Energy Transitions. American Association of Geographers Boston, MA. 6-10 April 2017.  
  • 55. Webler, T. 2015. Concern assessment in the analytic-deliberative process. Annual Meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis.  Arlington, VA, 9 December 2015.

Society for Risk Analysis