yale environmental n e w s Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies fall 2011 · vol. 17, no. 1 Shedding Light on Ancient Marine Life page 16 from the director faculty news “On July 1 of this year, I was given the honor Expert in Energy and Transportation Joins Tenure-Track Faculty of becoming Director of the Yale Institute for at the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies Biospheric Studies.” An expert in energy research delves into the effects of different poli- research on the economics and policy of and transportation cies on reducing greenhouse gas emissions solar energy technologies in that country. He goal of developing and testing new compu- that advanced stage doctoral students can has joined the tenure- from transportation.“We’re very pleased to have holds a PhD from Stanford University, and Michael Marsland, Yale University Michael Marsland, Yale tational platforms to assist in the analysis of have the opportunity to spend a year focused track faculty at the Ken join us,” said Dean Peter Crane. “He’s done taught “Economics of the Environment,” a complex systems. Many of the insights and on enhancing the scientific quality of their Yale School of Forestry important work on how consumers respond foundations course with an enrollment of tools that emerged from this activity have now dissertations through the exploration of their & Environmental to changing gasoline prices, which has critical approximately 100 students during the fall been embedded as core parts of research into innovative discoveries. I have asked anthropol- Studies (F&ES). implications for a variety of policies aimed at semester. biological and physical processes that shape ogy professor Rick Bribiescas to oversee this Kenneth Gillingham, reducing emissions from transportation.” “I am most impressed by F&ES’s energy the diversity of life. YIBS is now going through grant program. assistant professor Prior to joining Yale, Gillingham worked and excitement about making a difference,” he the exercise of closing down other Centers that A key part of YIBS is the Gaylord of environmental and at the California Air Resources Board, White said. “With the resources that F&ES and Yale have fulfilled their strategic goals, and at the Donnelley Environmental Postdoctoral energy economics, uses the tools of economics House Council of Economic Advisers, Stanford have to offer, I am in the perfect place to build same time, I have put out a call for faculty to Fellowship program. This program provides and statistics, along with expertise in energy Energy Modeling Forum, Joint Global Change my research career, while having the pleasure of gather and formulate proposals for the next the opportunity to bring exciting young schol- and systems engineering, to analyze policies Research Institute of Pacific Northwest teaching and guiding some fantastic students.” round of innovative and exciting research ars to Yale for two years so that they may addressing the world’s energy challenges. National Laboratory and Resources for the ideas. enhance their scholarship in preparation for His recent publications have focused on the Future. He grew up in White Plains, N.Y., For more information about Gillingham’s research, visit environment.yale.edu/profile/kenneth- In many ways, graduate students are the future professional careers in the environment. adoption of solar photovoltaic technology, mar- where his parents still live. gillingham/. threads that hold together the YIBS fabric. It Postdoctoral fellowships normally are intended ket failures in household energy efficiency and He also received a Fulbright Fellowship to is through their efforts that faculty from dif- strictly to support research, however many alternative fuels for transportation. Ongoing study in New Zealand, where he conducted ferent departments are often drawn together postdocs hope to secure faculty positions that to explore integrative research questions. I require teaching. Recognizing the need for such added training, YIBS is now facilitating oswald schmitz, director am committed to strengthening graduate student support for research in the environ- the opportunity for Donnelley Fellows to teach a seminar course in their area of expertise. Swedish Research Council Announces Appointment The Yale Institute of Biospheric Studies (YIBS), ment in two important directions. First, YIBS This will provide upper level undergradu- like the rest of Yale University, has undergone has now established a permanent competitive ate students the opportunity for intense and of Geology & Geophysics Professor John Wettlaufer a three-year period of constraint because of small grant program—the YIBS Field Ecology focused study on particular aspects of environ- the effects of the economic downturn on the Research Grants—to support pilot research by mental science. John S. Wettlaufer, “I am humbled, enthusiastic, honored, Wettlaufer spent the summer of 2010 in endowment. I am deeply appreciative of my beginning graduate students. This is a critical There are many other exciting initiatives Yale scientist and and surprised,” said Wettlaufer, an Alan M. England, where a Guggenheim Fellowship sup- predecessor, Jeffrey Park, for stabilizing YIBS time for these students because it offers them that are being planned, and I will be sure to professor in the Bateman Professor at Yale. “Humbled by the ported his work at the University of Oxford’s both programmatically and financially to ride a chance to develop their own proofs-of-con- report on them in the future as they come to departments of company of former Tage Erlander professors Mathematical Institute. There he worked on out this period. Because of these measures, cept for ideas that will eventually become the fruition. However, succeeding with any of these Physics and Geology who are an extremely accomplished group. several projects related to climate change, we are now in a great position to pursue new core of their thesis or dissertation. Experience initiatives is impossible without the gracious & Geophysics, has Enthusiastic because of the opportunity pro- including the construction of “physically real- and exciting opportunities as the endowment has shown that this kind of funding poises support, encouragement and advice that I been named the Tage vided to expand and develop my research istic but mathematically solvable stochastic recovers. graduate students to be highly competitive for receive from members of the YIBS commu- Erlander visiting pro- program both by the time allowed to focus theories of abrupt climate change.” I was a junior faculty when YIBS was external funding in subsequent years. I have nity at Yale, as well as members of the YIBS fessor at Stockholm’s and by the cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary At NORDITA Wettlaufer will extend this first created, and later served for a time asked ecology and evolutionary biology profes- External Advisory Board. I deeply appreciate Nordic Institute for opportunities afforded by it. Honored because climate research and pursue problems in plan- as a director of the former YIBS Center for sors David Post and Tom Near to oversee this all of that support as I “learn the ropes” in my Theoretical Physics Tage Erlander was the longest-serving prime etary accretion and in lattice Boltzmann meth- Computational Ecology (CCE). CCE no longer grant program. Second, an inevitable conse- new role at Yale. (NORDITA) for the year 2012. minister of Sweden, and was largely respon- ods for electromagnetism and turbulent flows. exists, not from lack of success, but rather quence of conducting research is that we often The Swedish Research Council announced sible for the building of the compassionate NORDITA is hosted jointly by Stockholm because it fulfilled a strategic goal of YIBS. make fascinating discoveries that unfortunately Wettlaufer’s appointment, which provides society that it is today. Surprised to have been University and the Royal Institute of YIBS has an entrepreneurial mission and pro- cannot be pursued given the terms and condi- $350,000 to support graduate students, selected, given that a physicist is chosen only Technology. The core research areas are astro- vides funding to catalyze innovative and often tions of existing grant support. For doctoral postdoctoral associates and visitors, and will about once every five years.” physics, condensed matter, statistical and bio- highly risky environmental research ventures students, pursuing these newly discovered Os Schmitz underpin Wettlaufer’s work on projects related A condensed matter theorist, Wettlaufer logical physics, high-energy and nuclear phys- so that scholars can develop the necessary avenues has the potential to enhance their dis- to climate change, planetary accretion and has research interests spanning statistical ics, and complex systems. Wettlaufer spent a proofs-of-concept to become competitive sertations by leaps and bounds. Recognizing fluid dynamics. physics, applied mathematics, and astrophys- previous sabbatical at NORDITA in 2008. for external funding from public and private again the entrepreneurial potential, YIBS will ics, biophysics and geophysics. He teaches in research foundations. CCE accomplished its create a highly competitive large grant Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant program so the Applied Mathematics program at Yale. 2 yale environmental news / 17:1 yale environmental news / 17:1 3 conferences, yale climate & seminars, symposia energy institute