Adam Radpour

Adam Radpour is a first-year Ph.D. student at the Abess Center who recently departed his government job to pursue research related to oil spill response and policy, and also join a university water polo team for the fourth time since undergrad. At the tender age of 19, he left the sunny beaches of south Orange County for the rainy redwood forests of UC Santa Cruz, majoring in Environmental Studies & Economics, spending most of his time in the frigid pool as a polo player, swimmer, and diver. Adam dabbled in environmental consulting as a biological technician, but after documenting too many contractors destroying precious flora and fauna without consequence, left fieldwork to join the Enforcement Division of the California Coastal Commission in Long Beach. There, he quickly learned that money makes most problems go away for wealthy people and companies, and government employees can only do so much with limited resources. He then enrolled in a M.Sc. in Environmental Management at the University of San Francisco, focusing on aquatic toxicology and pollution impacts onto waterways. Desiring a regulatory role with more teeth, he enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard two weeks after graduation, seeing service on the rugged Oregon Coast, oil & gas platforms of southeast Louisiana, and back in the San Francisco Bay.

Like much of the world’s population during the pandemic, Adam experienced an epiphany that led to a drastic life change, applying to the Ph.D. program in Environmental Science & Policy at the University of Miami. After countless “am I really doing this” deliberations, he resigned from active duty and drove across the country with his loyal Chihuahua sidekick to the tropics of Coral Gables. Here, he has found a home amongst fellow academics who support him in his passion for crude oil and mitigating impacts from industrial polluters. His goal is to improve federal spill response policy, specifically through the Natural Resource Damage Assessment process. In his free time, you can find him rambling on about historical nexuses to current states of affairs, trying to jumpstart a music career in karaoke bars, or reliving his glory days in the University pool.

He is not yet important (or technologically savvy) enough to have a website. Check out his work here or write a letter to aradpour@miami.edu