Gregory Bratman

  • Associate Professor
  • Doug Walker Endowed Professor
    • 206-543-7591
  • Visit Gregory's website

    • Gregory Bratman

    • Associate Professor
    • Doug Walker Endowed Professor

    Research areas

    Impacts of nature experience on human cognitive function, mood, and emotion regulation; accounting for mental health in ecosystem service assessments; environment and well-being.

    Dr. Bratman’s research takes place at the nexus of psychology, public health, and ecology, with a focus on examining the pathways through which nature experience benefits mental and physical health, and potential causal mechanisms underlying these relationships. He is the director of the Environment and Well-Being Lab – a research group that gathers empirical data, develops theoretical frameworks, and uses novel approaches to understand the association of nature contact with human well-being and explores how to operationalize the science in decision-making.

    Dr. Bratman is Co-Director of UW Nature and Health and is a member of Cohort II of the JPB Environmental Health Fellowship through the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

    B.A., Philosophy, Princeton University, cum laude
    MESM (Master of Environmental Management), Donald Bren School, University of California, Santa Barbara
    Ph.D., Environmental Resources, Stanford University

    Autumn 2026-27: Gregory Bratman’s acceptance of new graduate students is uncertain and dependent on the outcome of submitted research grant proposals.

    PhD candidates interested in working with Gregory Bratman are encouraged to apply. 

    Courses

    • ESRM 381 | Management of Wildland Recreation and Amenities (4) - Autumn
    • SEFS 590 | Nature and Health (3) - Winter
    • SEFS 561 | Public Presentation in Environmental Sciences (3) - Spring
    • ESRM 200 | Society and Sustainable Environments (5) - Spring

    Current sponsored projects

    • Do Terpenes Play a Role In the Stress-Reducing Effects of a Forest Bathing Intervention?

    • Quantifying Human Well-Being and Environmental Effects of Green Infrastructure in a Rapidly Changing Urban System

    • Assessing the Interplay Between Stress, Health, Behavior, and Inflammatory Gene Expression Response to Wildfire Smoke Exposures Using Community Engaged and Remote Sampling Approaches

    • Nature and Homelessness

    Selected publications

    Bratman, G. N., Garrett, J. K., & Elliott, L. R. (2025). Psychological ecosystem services. In P. D. McElwee, K. E. Allen, R. K. Gould, M. Hsu, & J. He (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Cultural Ecosystem Services (pp. 43-54). Routledge.

    Levy, C.M., Riederer, A.M., Simpson, C.D., Gassett, A.J., Gilbert, A.J., Paulsen, M.H., Silva, L.K., Bhandari, D., Newman, C.A., Blount, B.C., Kahn, P.H., Jr., Bratman, G.N. (2025). Forest terpenes and stress: Examining the associations of filtered vs. non-filtered air in a real-life natural environment. Environmental Research, 121482

    Bratman, G. N., Bembibre, C., Daily, G. C., Doty, R. L., Hummel, T., Jacobs, L. F., Kahn, P.H. Jr., Lashus, C., Majid, A., Miller, J.D., Oleszkiewicz, A., Olvera-Alvarez, H., Parma, V., Riederer, A., Long Sieber, N., Williams, J., Xiao, J., Yu, C-P., & Spengler, J. D. (2024). Nature and human well-being: The olfactory pathway. Science Advances, 10(20), eadn3028.

    Bratman, G. N., Mehta, A., Olvera-Alvarez, H., Spink, K. M., Levy, C., White, M. P., Kubzansky, L.D., & Gross, J. J. (2024). Associations of nature contact with emotional ill-being and well-being: the role of emotion regulation. Cognition and Emotion, 1-20.

    Bratman, G. N., & Olvera-Alvarez, H. A. (2022). Nature and health: Perspectives and pathways. Ecopsychology, 14(3), 133-136.

    Yin, J., Bratman, G. N., Browning, M. H. E. M., Spengler, J. D., & Olvera-Alvarez, H. A. (2022). Stress recovery from virtual exposure to a brown (desert) environment versus a green environment. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 101775.

    Remme, R. P., Frumkin, H., Guerry, A. D., King, A. C., Mandle, L., Sarabu, C., Bratman, G. N., Giles-Corti, B., Hamel, P., Han, B., Hicks, J., James, P., Lawler, J.J., Lindahl, T., Liu, H., Lu, Y., Oosterbroek, B., Paudel, B., Sallis, J.F., Schipperijn, J., Sosič, R., de Vries, S., Wheeler, B., Wood, S.A., Wu, T., Daily, G.C. (2021).  An ecosystem service perspective on urban nature, physical activity, and health. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(22).

    Bratman, G. N., Olvera‐Alvarez, H. A., & Gross, J. J. (2021). The affective benefits of nature exposure. Social and Personality Psychology Compass.

    Bratman, G. N., Young, G., Mehta, A., Lee Babineaux, I., Daily, G. C., & Gross, J. J. (2021). Affective Benefits of Nature Contact: The Role of Rumination. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 584.

    White, M. P., Bratman, G.N., Pahl, S., Young, G., Cracknell, D., Elliott, L.R. (2020). Affective reactions to losses and gains in biodiversity: Testing a prospect theory approach. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 72, 101502.

    Bratman, G.N., Anderson, C., Berman, M.G., Cochran, B., de Vries, S., Flanders, J., Folke, C., Frumkin, H., Gross, J.J., Hartig, T., Kahn, P.H.Jr., Kuo, M., Lawler, J.J., Levin, P.S., Lindahl, T., Meyer-Lindenberg, A., Mitchell R., Ouyang, Z., Roe, J., Scarlett, L., Smith, J., van den Bosch, M., Wheeler, B., White, M., Zheng, H., & Daily, G.C. (2019). Science Advances. Nature and mental health: An ecosystem service perspective. 5(7), eaax0903.

    Tallis, H., Bratman, G. N., Samhouri, J. F., & Fargione, J. (2018). Are California elementary school test scores more strongly associated with urban trees than poverty? Frontiers in Psychology, 9.

    Frumkin, H., Bratman, G. N., Breslow, S. J., Cochran, B., Kahn Jr, P. H., Lawler, J. J., … & Wood, S. A. (2017). Nature contact and human health: A research agenda. Environmental Health Perspectives, 125(7).

    Bratman, G. N., Daily, G. C., Levy, B. J., & Gross, J. J. 2015. The benefits of nature experience: Improved affect and cognition. Landscape and Urban Planning, 138:41-50.

    Bratman, G.N., Hamilton, J.P., Hahn, K.S., Daily, G.C., & Gross, J.J. 2015. Nature experience reduces rumination and subgenual prefrontal cortex activation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 112(28):8567-8572.

    Bratman, G. N., Hamilton, J. P., & Daily, G. C. 2012. The impacts of nature experience on human cognitive function and mental health. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1249(1):118-136.