Marvin S. Soroos (BA, Dartmouth College, 1967; Ph.D., Northwestern University, 1972) is professor emeritus of political science at North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC), where he has taught courses on global problems and policies and international law from 1970 to 2008. He served as department head from 1986 to 1998 and more recently directed the university's multidisciplinary Master of International Studies Program. In retirement he teaches courses on the subjects of global environmental issues and international human rights for the university's Encore Program for retirees. He received the university's Jackson Rigney International Service Award in 2008.
During the spring semester 2003, Soroos was the Class of 1946 Visiting Professor of International Environmental Studies at Williams College in Massachusetts. He taught courses on Global Environmental Politics and International Human Rights Law at the American University in Bulgaria as its Balkan Scholar during the spring semester 2006.
His publications have made a significant contribution to extending the field of policy studies to the international and global levels of political organization. His best known book, Beyond Sovereignty: The Challenge of Global Policy (University of South Carolina Press, 1986) received his college's Distinguished Research Publication Award in the Social Sciences in 1987.
Soroos has also been a pioneer in the field of global environmental politics, which has been his principal teaching and research interest since the mid-1970s. With David Orr (currently of Oberlin College), he co-edited an early book in the field entitled The Global Predicament: Ecological Perspectives on World Order (University of North Carolina Press, 1979).
His most recent book, The Endangered Atmosphere: Preserving a Global Commons (University of South Carolina Press, 1997) examines the evolution of international law pertaining to protection of the atmosphere, more specifically efforts to address the problems of atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, acid rain, depletion of the ozone layer, and global climate change. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Peace Research, International Studies Quarterly, International Organization, Environmental Review, Policy Studies Journal, International Political Science Journal, Environment,Global Environmental Politics, and Human Ecology.
He served as president of the Southern Regional Section of the International Studies Association (ISA) as well as chair of the Environmental Studies Section of ISA. He was ISA's liaison to the International Human Dimensions of Global Environment Change Program (IHDP) and served on the scientific advisory committee for the Global Environmental Change and Human Security Program, which is associated with IHDP.
Soroos is a world traveler, having lectured and attended conferences and workshops in Europe, Scandinavia, Latin America, Japan, China, Australia, and Russia. He participated in Fulbright programs in India, Japan, and Peru. A frequent visitor to Finland, he has on several occasions taught short courses at the University of Tampere, as well as at Lapland University (Rovaniemi) and the University of Turku. In the summer of 2001 he delivered a series of lectures in Germany sponsored by the US Embassy in Berlin on the topic of "The United States and the Global Climate Change Negotiations." In recemt years, he has traveled in China, Mongolia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Sri Lanka, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Nepal (trekking), Thailand, Spain, Portugal, and Chile.
In his spare time, Soroos is a painter of landscapes, mostly of scenes from his native Montana and his international travels. His painting have won prizes at the North Carolina State Fair and been shown in group and solo exhibitions in the Raleigh area and in galleries in Raleigh, Missoula, Montana, Omaha, Nebraska, and Cody, Wyoming. He is also a dancer and crowd rouser for the Little German Band and Dancers of Raleigh, which does numerous gigs especially during the fall Oktoberfest season.