View CV

Bio

Christopher Galik joined NC State in August 2016 as a Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program cluster hire in Sustainable Energy Systems and Policy (SESP). Galik is a professor in the Department of Public Administration, and is primarily interested in the areas of institutions and governance. He brings an interdisciplinary perspective to his work, leveraging expertise in institutional theory, economics, and the natural sciences to address energy and environmental management and policy challenges. Recent research includes an evaluation of institutional stability in environmental governance, the influence of historical transitions on the adoption of sustainable practices at the local level, and the contribution of voluntary actions to climate change mitigation objectives.

Galik obtained a bachelor’s degree in biology from Vassar College, a master’s degree in resource economics and policy from Duke University, and a Ph.D. in forestry and environmental resources from North Carolina State University. Galik returns to NC State via Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, where he worked for a decade on a variety of environmental and energy policy research and outreach initiatives. He has published multiple whitepapers, briefs, and online discussion papers, as well as articles in journals such as Nature Climate Change, Global Environmental Change, Climate Policy, Applied Energy, Energy Policy, and others. Galik has also worked with private sector, NGO, academic, state government, and federal agency stakeholders to plan and convene multiple panels, workshops, and symposia on a wide variety of energy and environmental policy issues.

Office Hours

• By Appointment

 

Publications

• Governance of Climate‐Induced Relocation in the US: An Exploration of Institutional Complexity , Review of Policy Research (2026)
• Quantifying the greenhouse gas impact of university air travel: an applied analysis , International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education (2026)
• Social-ecological-technological drivers of freshwater salinization in the Occoquan Reservoir, United States , Communications Earth & Environment (2026)
• Collaborative Solutions to Inland Freshwater Salinization , Research Square (2025)
• Compounded resilience: a step towards achieving climate mitigation and adaptation in the U.S. built environment , Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change (2025)
• State-led climate action can cut emissions at near-federal costs but favors different technologies , Nature Communications (2025)
• Tackling Wicked Problems Together , (2025)
• Individual and interlinked SDGs: higher education institutions and metro area sustainability performance , International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education (2024)
• Historical industrial transitions influence local sustainability planning, capability, and performance , Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions (2023)
• Institutional stability and change in environmental governance , Policy & Politics (2023)

View all publications