Peter H. Kahn Jr.

Psychologist Peter Kahn is the Director of the Human Interaction with Nature and Technological Systems (HINTS) Lab at the UW, where he explores two trends that are reshaping human existence. One is the rapid degradation of the natural world. The other is the speed of technological development, both in terms of its computational sophistication and pervasiveness.

Peter and his team dive into questions that arise out of these trends, such as how interaction with nature (and more wild nature) benefits people physically and psychologically, the psychological effects of interacting with technologies that simulate, mediate, or argument nature, and using deep and meaningful interaction with nature (what he calls interaction pattern design) to revision and contribute to urban sustainability.

Peter is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Ecopsychology. He is also the author of five books with MIT Press, including Technological Nature: Adaptation and the Future of Human Life (2011).