Emeritus Professor Steve Dovers was originally trained as an ecologist and natural resource manager, and worked in agricultural experimentation, local government and heritage management. He later studied geography at graduate level, and gained a PhD in environmental policy in 1996. He became an academic member of staff at the then Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies at the ANU in 1997. From 2009-2017 he was Director of the Fenner School of Environment and Society at the ANU, and an inaugural ANU Public Policy Fellow. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and a member of its Panel A Committee. He was inaugural Chair of the Management Committee of Future Earth Australia; is Chair of the Science Advisory Committee of The Mulloon Institute; Interim Chair of the Research & Techology Advisory Committee of the Australian Research Data Commons; Associate Editor of the Australasian Journal of Environmental Management, and member of the editorial Boards of the journals Local Environments, and Environmental Science and Policy. Steve is a Senior Associate with the advisory firm Aither.

Steve has published >250 journal articles, books, book chapters and reports, and supervised or co-supervised over 70 PhD scholars in addition to Masters and Honours students. He has acted as peer reviewer for over 50 different academic journals, and was awarded the 2019 Australasian Cities Research Network Medal for contributions to urban studies.