Aleksandar Rankovic is a PhD student in ecology at Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris and a researcher at the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI-Sciences Po). His PhD research mainly focuses on long-term carbon and nutrient dynamics in urban ecosystems, with Paris street soil-tree systems as a case-study. While at Harvard during spring 2015, he will use STS insights to help in framing future discussions between urban ecologists and city managers and dwellers. He is also more generally interested in how STS can help ecologists better define and achieve their objectives in science-policy interactions.

Aleksandar did a BSc in Life Sciences at Université Pierre et Marie Curie and followed with a double graduate program in environmenal science and policy, with a MSc in Environmental Sciences from Université Pierre et Marie Curie and a MA in International Affairs from the Paris Institute of Political Studies. He then started a PhD in ecology at the Paris Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences (https://ieesparis.ufr918.upmc.fr). In his PhD research, Aleksandar studies long-term patterns in several plant and soil variables related to carbon and nutrient dynamics. This combines approaches such as soil-plant stable isotope analysis (¹³C, ¹⁵N ) by mass spectrometry and the study of soil microbial ecology through molecular biology tools.

In the coming years, Aleksandar’s work at IDDRI-Sciences Po (www.iddri.org) will more generally address the interactions between ecological research and environmental policies. He is particularly interested in studying ecologists’ strategies to make the entities they study count in policy arenas, especially the objectives they are pursuing and the means they are employing. His case studies will include urban ecologists in Paris, ocean ecologists in the context of UNFCCC COP 21, and an international consortium of savannah ecologists. His stay at the STS Program will enable him to work on both the theoretical and methodological approaches that he will use in this research.

In 2014, Aleksandar worked with Bruno Latour and François Gemenne on the coordinaton of about 40 researchers from 22 research teams in natural sciences and the humanities for the Sorbonne Paris Cité Program “Politics of the Earth” (www.politiquesdelaterre.fr).

PUBLICATIONS

Laurans, Y., Rankovic, A., Billé, R., Pirard, R, Mermet, L. (2013). Use of ecosystem services economic valuation for decision making: Questioning a litterature blindspot, Journal of Environmental Management, 119, 208-219

Rankovic, A., Pacteau, C., Abbadie, L. (2012). Ecosystem services and cross-scale urban adaptation to climate change: An articulation essay, VertigO, Special Issue 12, https://vertigo.revues.org/11851 (in French)