Virgo, an experienced higher-ed administrator, will oversee the Institute’s finances and operations in this multifaceted role.
Institute at Brown for Environment and Society
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Sarah Gottlieb, a children’s science journalist, spoke to IBES Director Kim Cobb in the aftermath of the early 2025 Palisades Fire.
IBES Fellow and Professor of History Nancy Jacobs was interviewed about her research on the grey parrot.
IBES affiliate Cory Zigler, a professor of biostatistics, offered commentary on the effects of a wide-ranging rollback of environmental regulations, asserting that “more of this type of pollution that we know kills people will be in the air.”
IBES affiliate Erica Walker, an assistant professor of epidemiology and founder of the Community Noise Lab at Brown’s School of Public Health, was interviewed about her noise pollution research.
The Community Noise Lab, led by IBES affiliate Erica Walker in the School of Public Health, recently launched a rotating environmental monitoring network to measure a variety of pollutants, meteorological conditions, and noise levels in the Southern United States.
Filled with warmth and purpose, this year’s celebration featured powerful programmatic additions and carried momentum through the passion of over 50 new graduates.
June 2, 2025
News from Brown
Air-quality monitoring underestimates toxic emissions to Salton Sea communities, study finds
Researchers showed that hydrogen sulfide, which is associated with numerous health conditions, is emitted from California’s largest lake at levels far higher and more frequently than previously reported.
The Wall Street Journal
Behold, a Climate-Tech Venture Fund Closed in 2025
Planeteer Capital, a venture firm led by ENVS alumna Sophie Purdom '16, defied the odds this year by closing a $54 million first-time fund to invest in climate-tech startups.
Article coauthor Jennifer Hadden, an IBES affiliate at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, proposes a framework for understanding the basic infrastructure needs of people displaced by climate change during four phases: initiation, mobilization, pause and settle.
IBES Fellow Joseph Braun – a professor of epidemiology and director of the Center for Climate, Environment & Health – spoke about the new center's research and whether the current presidential administration could affect its work.
The Atlantic
A New Concept for Fighting Climate Change
IBES Fellow Elizabeth Rush, an assistant professor of the practice in the Department of English, penned this book review.
IBES Professor Stephen Porder offered commentary for this article.
Visiting IBES Professor Robert Brulle offered commentary on “affinity of purpose advertising.”
IBES Director Kim Cobb and alumna Ann Garth '20 offered commentary for this article.
News from IBES
How to solve the carbon challenge? Ask Brown students
Through a semester-long project, students in EEPS/ENVS 0360 partner with community stakeholders to implement carbon reduction strategies.
This article features insights from IBES affiliate Xan Chacko, a lecturer in science, technology, and society and an expert on the history of biodiversity conservation.
This article features research from incoming Voss Postdoctoral Research Associate Elodie Freymann '18.
May 12, 2025
News from Watson
Student Spotlight: Charlie Adams ’25
Senior International and Public Affairs and environmental science concentrator Charlie Adams, who graduates this month, grew up around policy and politics. Naturally, he found himself at home in the Watson Institute's International and Public Affairs (IAPA) concentration.
Carbon Radio
What is Sustainability? A biogeochemical perspective
IBES and Biology Professor Stephen Porder outlined critical dynamics and challenges related to energy, food, and water as a featured guest on this podcast.
IBES Postdoc Sonam Futi Sherpa contributed to this study, which finds that all of the 28 most populous U.S. cities are sinking.
Climate conversations came to life at IBES this semester as thought leaders, students, and changemakers gathered to exchange ideas, share stories, and shape real-world solutions.
Los Angeles Review of Books
The Teeming Earth
IBES and History Associate Professor Bathsheba Demuth reviewed Ferris Jabr’s “Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life.”
Los Angeles Review of Books
Listening to the Nonhuman World: On Including Other Life-Forms in Politics
This article considers recent books on the political rights of nonhuman beings, including “Eco-Emancipation: An Earthly Politics of Freedom” by Sharon Krause, an IBES affiliate and professor of political science.
IBES Director Kim Cobb is among the eight Brown faculty members elected to the AAAS.
Yajima explores how farming and development are reshaping toad breeding patterns, uncovering key insights into the broader impact on natural habitats.
April 29, 2025
News from Brown
New center at Brown to study the intersection of climate, environment and human health
During a campus conversation to celebrate the launch of the Center for Climate, Environment and Health, panelists explored the impacts of climate change on human health and the research that will drive life-saving solutions.
Four recently awarded working groups bring a new, interdisciplinary, and engaged approach to climate solutions.
IBES Fellow Baylor Fox-Kemper discussed how climate change impacts the ocean and how Rhode Island communities can better prepare for conditions that could negatively impact water utilities.
Harold Ward, the father of the environmental studies program at Brown, passed away on in December 2024 at the age of 89.
Brown Division of Research
2025 Research Achievement Awardees
IBES Assistant Professor Daniel Ibarra received this year's Early Career Research Achievement Award in the Physical Sciences.
Visiting IBES Professor Robert Brulle offered commentary for this article.
IBES Professor Stephen Porder spoke to Colleen Cronin '21 about the effects of recent federal funding cuts.
April 23, 2025
News from Brown
Brown scholars elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
With their election to the prestigious honor society, eight members of the Brown University faculty join the nation’s leading scholars in science, public affairs, business, arts and the humanities.
American Lung Association
2025 State of the Air Report: Air Quality Worsens in Providence Metro Area Due to Wildfire Smoke
Members of the IBES-housed Breathe Providence project offered commentary for this press release.
April 22, 2025
News from Brown
Staff Spotlight: Sowing more than seedlings, Nicholas Vasques cultivates learning and research
As Brown’s research greenhouse manager, Vasques tends the Plant Environmental Center run by the University’s Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology.
April 22, 2025
News from Brown
Video: Brown biologist Stephen Porder on taking purposeful, planet-positive personal steps
This Earth Day, Brown University’s associate provost for sustainability offers strategies to minimize carbon dioxide emissions and help mitigate climate change.
IBES Affiliate Mark Blyth penned this opinion piece with Visiting Scholar Nicolò Fraccaroli.
Chemical & Engineering News
Scientists face deficiencies in leadership countering US policies
IBES and Sociology Professor Scott Frickel offered commentary for this article.
IBES’ founding director joins global leaders to help shape a new framework for sustainable and just governance in the Arctic.
Brown Alumni Magazine
Bite-Sizing Climate Action
"Possibly" – IBES' podcast with the Public's Radio – fights climate-change overwhelm, one “let’s break this down” episode at a time.
The Washington Post
Trump’s new reason for canceling grants: ‘Climate anxiety’
“The answer to rising levels of climate anxiety is to meet the moment with robust and durable evidence-based solutions,” IBES Director Kim Cobb told The Washington Post. “It’s not to stick our heads in the sand.”
The Atlantic
America Is Backsliding Toward Its Most Polluted Era
Corwin Zigler — a biostatistics professor and IBES affiliate who served on an EPA scientific advisory panel on air pollution under the Biden administration — provided commentary for this article.
The Brown Daily Herald
What Brown experts, RI officials think about the EPA’s planned climate rollbacks
IBES Professors Kim Cobb, Scott Frickel, and Meredith Hastings offered commentary for this article, condemning the rollback of federal environmental oversight.
Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space
Growing sustainable capitalism: The environmental politics of agri-tech in Singapore
This article, written by Voss Postdoc Vanessa Koh, examines the nexus of the emergence of the agri-tech ecosystem in Singapore and concerns over climate change.
Siddapureddy, a senior concentrating in ecology, explores the impact of invasive trees to understand climate change.
Kurt Pennell — an engineering professor, IBES fellow, and groundwater remediation expert — offered input during an October 2024 meeting to review the environmental impacts of the the Massachusetts Army National Guard's controversial proposal for a machine gun range on Joint Base Cape Cod.
With the help of an IBES Catalyst Research Award, affiliate faculty member Erica Walker and her Community Noise Lab will launch a free, self-paced online summer environmental health and science program for middle school students in Jackson, Mississippi.
March 24, 2025
News from Brown
New research helps reconstruct sudden, dramatic sea level rise after last ice age
By determining which ice sheets melted to create a colossal increase in sea levels 14,500 years ago, scientists hope to enable better predictions of how current ice melting will affect levels around the world.
Nature Climate Change
Improving future climate meetings
Jennifer Hadden, an IBES affiliate at the Watson Institute, penned with article alongside Aseem Prakash of the University of Washington.