Dean, School of Forestry & Wildlife Sciences
Auburn University

Janaki Alavalapati is dean of the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences at Auburn University. He previously served as a professor and the head of the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech and a faculty member in the School of Forest Resources and Conservation at the University of Florida. Prior to his time in the United States, he served as a forest officer in Andhra Pradesh, India. He has master’s degrees in botany and forestry from universities in India, and master’s and doctoral degrees in rural sociology and forest economics, respectively, from the University of Alberta, Canada. He has published more than 200 publications and made more than 150 professional presentations relating to forests, wildlife and natural resources.

Alavalapati’s selected awards include a University of Florida Research Foundation Professorship, Superior Honor Award from the U.S. Department of State in 2008, and the International Union of Forest Research Organization’s (IUFRO) Scientific Achievement Award in 2010. He was a Jefferson Science Fellow and was also a senior fellow of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C.