Robert Kirkman is Assistant Professor in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research encompasses environmental philosophy, the history and philosophy of the natural sciences, the history of philosophy, and ethics. Current research includes the extension of environmental philosophy to the built environment, especially to the process of suburbanization and metropolitan growth.

Dr. Kirkman is author of Skeptical Environmentalism: The Limits of Philosophy and Science (Indiana University Press, 2002). Other publications include articles in Environmental Ethics and The Journal of Value Inquiry along with numerous book reviews.

Dr. Kirkman holds a BA in Philosophy and History from Miami University and a PhD in Philosophy from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. In 1993, he received a Chateaubriand Scholarship from the Cultural Consul of the French Embassy to the United States; he spent 10 months in Paris studying the development of natural history in France during the 18th century and its influence on 20th century ecology.

Dr. Kirkman taught philosophy in the New York metropolitan area and at the University of New Hampshire before taking a turn toward interdisciplinarity with the Learning Communities Program at Stony Brook and the Lyman Briggs School at Michigan State University.