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AROUND THE QUADSUniversity Launches Climate CenterColumbia has established its first center focused on bringing together scientists, engineers, public health experts, foreign policy specialists and others who are working on the challenges of climate change. The Columbia Climate Center, part of the Earth Institute but encompassing other parts of the University as well, is an outgrowth of Columbia’s leadership in earth and environmental sciences, says its director, Peter Schlosser. “Climate research always has been a strong part of Columbia and can be traced all the way back to the early work of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory,” says Schlosser, the Vinton Professor of Earth and Environmental Engineering and Applied Science. “The Columbia Climate Center builds on these contributions to move toward a solution-oriented approach to a problem that is so multidimensional.” The center’s goals are to advance scientific knowledge about climate change, analyze policy and put forward solutions to real-world problems. A key challenge, and one familiar to academia, will be getting out the message, both to educate the public and influence policymakers. On January 31, the center hosted a discussion on climate change showcasing the interdisciplinary expertise at Columbia as part of Focus the Nation, a nationwide day to raise the profile of climate change in the United States. “We aim to improve the pathways of communication so that the results of our research reach both decision makers and society at large,” says Mary-Elena Carr, the center’s associate director. Schlosser and Carr emphasize the interdisciplinary nature of the center and its mission and say its success depends on close collaboration among experts from different disciplines, research centers and programs across the University. “None of the existing climate-related centers at Columbia can address the entire spectrum of climate impacts, yet each center plays a key role,” Schlosser says. By the end of this year, Schlosser and Carr hope to make the center the hub for climate-related science at Columbia. Five years from now, Schlosser says, “We hope to have established projects in which we have channeled innovative fundamental research into specific strategies ready for implementation.”
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