The Rutgers School of Criminal Justice (SCJ) is excited to announce two new Ronald V. Clarke Fellows for the 2026-27 academic year. 

The Ronald V. Clarke Visiting Scholar program is designed to bring distinguished senior scholars with expertise in environmental criminology, situational crime prevention, wildlife crime prevention, or crime science to SCJ to advance research, mentor students, and enrich intellectual discourse through workshops and public engagement.

Dr. Gohar Petrossian is a Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at John Jay College and serves as the Executive Officer of the Criminal Justice Doctoral Program at the CUNY Graduate Center. She earned her Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from Rutgers University in 2012. Her research applies crime science theories to examine wildlife poaching, illegal fishing, and other environmental crimes, with particular attention to how environmental settings and conditions shape opportunities for these offenses. She has authored more than 75 scholarly articles, book chapters, and monographs in this area. 

Dr. Petrossian’s research has been supported through collaborations with international organizations such as the UNODC, conservation NGOs including the Wildlife Conservation Society, Fauna & Flora, World Animal Protection, and Pan African Sanctuary Alliance, and government agencies such as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Wildlife Crime Unit. These partnerships span issues including wildlife trafficking, illegal fishing, hazardous waste trafficking, and illegal gold mining. Her work has been featured in outlets such as National Geographic, PBS Nature, Forbes, and The Conversation.

Dr. Carlos Díaz is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics at Universidad Alberto Hurtado in Santiago, Chile. He holds a PhD in Economics from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. His research lies at the intersection of quantitative criminology, urban economics, and crime analysis. Drawing on rational choice and routine activity perspectives, he studies how everyday routines, mobility patterns, and the environment shape criminal opportunities across space and time. 

Dr. Diaz is also a Principal Investigator at the Millennium Nucleus on Criminal Complexity and an Associate Researcher at the Centro de Estudios Justicia & Sociedad at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and the Centro Interdisciplinar de Políticas Públicas at Universidad Alberto Hurtado. He has also advised the Public Prosecutor’s Offices of Chile and Uruguay on the use of crime data for crime analysis and criminal justice policy. His research has appeared in the Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Series A and C of the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Crime Science, the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, and Nature Human Behaviour, among other outlets.

Dr. Petrossian and Dr. Diaz will deliver two workshops per semester, which are designed for graduate students and faculty. The workshops emphasize advanced scholarly skills, research methods, policy relevance, or topical expertise. Both fellows will also pursue a substantial research project during their residency and provide a brief summary at its conclusion and will engage in public lectures, research talks, mentoring sessions, and campus discussions.