Paul Laris is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at California State University, Long Beach. His research interests include political ecology, biogeography, savanna ecology, remote sensing of fire, and restoration ecology. He has conducted research in the savanna of Mali and the rangelands of Tierra del Fuego while his graduate students are working in chaparral and coastal sage scrub environments of southern California. He teaches environmental geography courses such as International Environmental Issues, Humans as Agents of Environmental Change, Biogeography, Field Methods of Landscape Analysis. Paul is currently serving as undergraduate advisor for the department. He lives in Long Beach with BA, Copeland and Quincy.

Paul is the one in the striped t-shirt.