Andrew Bell

Andrew Reid Bell is the inaugural Schleifer Family Professor of Sustainability in the Department of Global Development at Cornell University. His work draws on agent-based modeling tools, informed by field and behavioral experiments. In particular, he developed the MIDAS (Migration, Intensification, and Diversification as Adaptive Strategies) modeling framework (based on push-pull-mooring or PPM theory) in order to model migration as an emergent outcome among other livelihood adaptations.

Bell’s lab at Cornell focuses on rural livelihoods decision-making, and the pro-poor development challenge of broadening opportunities and enabling families to take advantage of them. Key methods for the group are coupled natural-human systems modeling (especially agent-based modeling), and behavioral experiments to inform them. Work by current lab members spans migration, irrigation, human-wildlife conflict, and agricultural technology adoption.

Prior to joining Cornell, Bell was an Associate Professor of Earth & Environment at Boston University with a research program focused on identifying responses to human-environment dilemmas that provide support for the most disadvantaged while also ensuring sustainability. He earned a PhD in Natural Resource Management from the University of Michigan in 2010, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and positions at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and New York University.