MICHAEL M. McCARTHY

Michael M. McCarthy consults, lectures, writes, and leads international expeditions
about strategies that result in maximum sustainable economic growth concurrent with
a measurable net gain in environmental conditions. He focuses his research on virtual learning about sustainable enterprises in an era of resource conflict, competition, and change. He holds Adjunct Professor appointments in both the USA and Australia –
with the Institute for Interactive Arts and Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas, and with the Centre for Ecological Economics and Water Policy Research at the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales.

From 1988 to 2004 he held administrative and professorial positions at Texas A&M University (TAMU). During that time he received the American Association of University Administrators’ 1990 national award for 'Exemplary Team Leadership.'

He proposed, obtained funding for, and oversaw the initial development and approval of: the Visualization Laboratory, the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center, the Environmental Psychophysiology Laboratory; and received approval for, and taught the first classes on sustainable development approved by that University. From 1988-92 as Dean of the College of Architecture, he was one of ten deans that undertook TAMU’s first capital campaign that raised over $600 million. As Dean, he obtained donations that perpetually endowed professorships and scholarships - and received line item funding of $2 million to assist the “Colonias” settlements along the Texas border. Chancellor Thompson described that ongoing program as: “The University’s best outreach effort.”

For 23 years, a significant part of his professional work has been in Australia and he travels there once or more every year. Since 1999 he has led multi-week expeditions to Australia for professionals, life-long learners, and graduate students about net gain sustainable enterprises – Green Both Ways. From 1983–88 he held the prestigious Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Chair in the School of Environmental Planning at the University of Melbourne, Victoria. During that time he directed a 5-year program on reconstruction strategies for the Mt. Macedon community after the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires and was the senior author of the award winning book, Design for Change. In 1986, Prince Charles and Princess Diana dedicated the Mt. Macedon recovery project.

Earlier in his career Dr. McCarthy held administrative, professorial, and/or research positions at the University of Arizona, Harvard University, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He is an alumnus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) and from 1968–73 researched early applications of remote sensing and geographical information systems. In 1982 he received the ‘Outstanding Alumnus Award’ from the Department of Landscape Architecture at UW. He is the author of nearly a hundred publications and has served on a number of editorial boards including: Landscape Journal (University of Wisconsin Press), Landscape and Urban Planning (Elsevier), and Landscape Australia (Landscape Publications). His latest book Gathering Thoughts will be published in late 2006. For over 30 years he has lectured around the world – beginning as an invited speaker at the ‘First International Congress of Ecology’ in The Hague, Netherlands (1974) - to more recently being asked by Premier Peter Beattie to be the Keynote Speaker at the ‘Summit on Sustainability’ in Brisbane, Australia (2000).

He can be reached at:
mmmccarthy@austin.rr.com
1 512 303 4993.