Education

Stanford University Creates New School For Study Of Climate And Sustainability


In a major development for climate science, Stanford University announced this week that it was forming a new school focused on climate and sustainability. The school, which will absorb several of the university’s existing units and departments and add others in the future, will begin operations in fall 2022. It will help establish Stanford at the forefront of universities recognized for excellence in the study of global climate challenges and solutions.

The still-unnamed school is the first created by Stanford in 70 years. It’s based on a plan developed by a faculty Blueprint Advisory Committee that worked for about a year to draft options and recommendations for how the new unit should be structured.

In addition to the faculty committee, a nine-member student group convened numerous meetings that led to a report laying out their vision for the school. Staff in the merging units also participated in the planning process.

“Stanford is taking the historic step of creating the university’s first new school in 70 years in response to the scale and urgency of threats facing our planet,” said Stanford President Tessier-Lavigne in the university’s announcement. “With our faculty aligned in these new divisions, and with cross-cutting themes and an accelerator integrating expertise from the entire university to drive solutions, we will marshal our resources to serve humanity’s top priority, which is to create a future in which all humans and natural systems can thrive together in concert and in perpetuity.”

The new school will house the School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences, the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, the Precourt Institute for Energy, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (joint with the School of Engineering) and the facilities at Hopkins Marine Station. It’s anticipated that the scholars in those units will be augmented in the future by both new faculty hires as well as by numerous faculty who will join the new school from other schools and departments.

At the outset, participating departments will be organized into four divisions: division of earth and planetary sciences; division of engineering for sustainability; division of climate, environment and biodiversity; and division of integrated socio-environmental systems. Within those divisions, several multidisciplinary themes will be emphasized, including environmental justice, sustainable urban development, climate policy and environmental communications.

Stanford’s new school will also contain what it’s calling a “sustainability accelerator.” It will bring together university expertise and external partners for the purpose of innovating new technologies to solve energy, climate and sustainability challenges.

“The accelerator bridges the gap between academia and external partners,” said Yi Cui, director of the Precourt Institute for Energy and professor of materials science and engineering. “It will amplify the impact of energy technology and policy solutions launched through the Precourt Institute programs and help us to be even more successful.”

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Stanford is now conducting a naming process for the school as well as searching for an inaugural dean to head it up. Students will be accepted into the school beginning in the 2022-23 academic year.



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