Kirk Jalbert is a Ph.D. candidate in the Science & Technology Studies Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, as well as a visiting research scientist for the FracTracker Alliance, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit that produces maps, data, and digital storytelling projects to communicate the impacts of global oil and gas extraction. His research centers on the politics of technologies used in environmental justice movements. Since 2010 this work has focused on understanding how citizens vocalize environmental health concerns through participatory data collection and geospatial mapping projects – particularly in the contexts of volunteer water monitoring groups working with NGOs, academic research scientists, and regulatory officials dealing with hydraulic fracturing for shale gas in Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia. Past research includes conducting environmental sensing workshops with Navajo Nation educational centers, as well as ethnographic fieldwork with toxicologists at the EPA’s Office of Research and Development. He has an MFA in new media and a BS in computer science.