Michelle Portman (Technion) - Engineering, Technology and Planning; Environment

Michelle Portman graduated the Technion with a M.Sc. in Urban and Regional Planning (’91), the University of California Berkeley with a B.Sc. in Political Economy of Natural Resources (’84) and the University of Massachusetts with a doctorate in Public Policy (’07).  She returned to Israel in 2009 following a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Marine Policy Center of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.  She continued her research as a post-doctorate in the Geography Department at Hebrew University of Jerusalem until joining the Technion.

Michelle’s research in marine and coastal management has focused on conservation and the connection between uses of the land and sea (commercial fishing, marine renewable energy, offshore infrastructure, etc.).  She researched governance for coastal development, integrated coastal zone management, natural resource use and environmental justice, decision support tools for planning and the use of GIS for public participation.  With regard to emergency preparedness, she researched the potential contribution of urban and regional planning to tsunami preparedness and also the resilience and vulnerability of coastal communities to extreme weather events. She head up the MarCoast Ecosystems Integration Lab in which research is conducted on marine litter, water sensitive design, coastal zone management and marine conservation policy.