He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University and has subsequently held visiting scholar positions at Stanford and UCLA. His research and teaching pursuits examine forms of social-ecological vulnerability in the context of profound economic, political and environmental change. His current National Science Foundation funded projects are located in the American West and India. Among other professional appointments Dr Simon is the Environment and Society Section Editor for the journal Geography Compass. He served as the Chair of the Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers and has also been a Core Advisor to the United Nations Foundation. His most recent book titled Flame and Fortune in the American West (2016) is published with the University of California Press.