Ronald D. Brunner is a policy scientist, and (since 1981) professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Previously, he was a tenured member of the faculty at the University of Michigan, and held research positions at Harvard, in Germany, and in the U. S. Congress. A native of Colorado, he was educated at Yale University where he received a BA in 1964 and a PhD in 1971.His practice of policy sciences includes work with policy makers on specific problems in energy, welfare, education, and space policy, and more recently, natural resources, climate change, and international development policy. Drawing on this practice, his theoretical work in the policy sciences focuses on development of a contextual epistemology, including context-sensitive methods, and on the symbolic instruments of politics and policy. His latest book (co-authored) is Finding Common Ground: Governance and Natural Resources Policy in the American West (Yale University Press. 2002). His next book (also co-authored) is Adaptive Governance: Integrating Science, Policy, and Decision-Making (Columbia University Press, 2005).