Lawrence Susskind

Lawrence (Larry) Susskind (born in New York City in 1947) has been a member of the MIT faculty for five decades. He is currently director of the MIT Science Impact Collaborative (scienceimpact.mit.edu) in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning where he teaches full time (lawrencesusskind.mit.edu). His work as an environmental planner focuses on the mediation of environmental disputes and strategies for involving large numbers of groups with very different ideas and interests in managing natural resources together. His books entitled Water Diplomacy, Negotiating Environmental Agreements, Environmental Diplomacy, Better Environmental Policy Studies, and Transboundary Environmental Agreements explain how this is possible. Through his writing and practice as a mediator with the Cambridge-based not-for-profit Consensus Building Institute (www.cbi.org), he has helped to establish the field of public dispute resolution. Breaking Robert's Rules, Breaking the Impasse, Dealing with An Angry Public, Negotiating on Behalf of Others, Built to Win and the Consensus Building Handbook offer insights into the techniques and strategies that have made Professor Susskind a much sought-after trainer and teacher. He has supervised more than 70 doctoral students at MIT and Harvard, many of whom now teach in universities around the world. In 1983, with Roger Fisher, Howard Raiffa and Frank Sander, he founded the Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School (www.pon.harvard.edu) which continues to play an important part in shaping negotiation and dispute resolution theory. At PON he is Vice Chair and Director of the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center. His new co-authored book, Judicial Dispute Resolution: New Roles for Judges in Ensuring Justice will be published by Anthem Press in April 2023.