Dr. J. Steven Picou
 Adjunct Research Fellow, SSRC; Chair of Sociology and Anthropology, University of South Alabama
Ph.D., Sociology, Louisiana State University
Dr. Picou is professor of sociology and chair, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of South Alabama.  Dr. Picou received his doctoral degree from Louisiana State University and has held academic and research appointments at Ohio State University and Texas A&M University.  Dr. Picou’s research focuses on environmental sociology, applied sociology and disasters.  He has published three books and over 100 articles and book chapters.  He is an adjunct scientist at the Prince William Sound Science Center and the Copper River Delta Institute, Cordova, AK.  Dr. Picou has received over one million dollars in funded research from organizations such as the Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation, Center for Field Research and the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory Council.  Dr. Picou's research interests include environmental degradation and social change, psychosocial impacts of technological disasters and organizational effectiveness.  He is currently directing research on the chronic impacts of resource-loss from the Exxon Valdez oil spill on Native-villages and fishing communities in Prince William Sound, AK, and the relationship of subsistence harvests and consumption of toxins in fish in Mobile Bay, AL.  Dr. Picou has served as president of the Mid-South Sociological Association, vice-president of Alpha Kappa Delta and chair, Environment and Technology Section, Society for the Study of Social Problems.  He was recently appointed to the National Academy of Sciences Committee to evaluate the Gulf of Alaska Ecosystem Monitoring Program.  Dr. Picou has also served as an expert-witness in numerous toxic contamination cases and has published several articles on protecting respondent confidentiality and research files involved in litigation.