Brown Alumni Magazine
Sustainability Pioneer
This obituary honors Professor Emeritus Harold Ward, an environmental studies elder beloved by students and colleagues.
Institute at Brown for Environment and Society
IBES in the News
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
IBES affiliate Jerome Robinson, an associate professor of chemistry, discussed STEM Day at Brown — an initiative he leads for local high schoolers.
Citizens' Climate Lobby
Can Talking About Climate Change Reduce Anxiety?
This episode of Citizens’ Climate Radio features insights from Kate Schapira, an IBES affiliate in the Department of English.
"Extreme weather events, made more frequent and intense by climate change, pose a clear and present danger to our education system," said affiliate faculty member Matthew Kraft.
March 13, 2025
News from Brown
Brown launches new master’s degree program in sustainable energy
Combining cutting-edge science, technology and engineering education with economic and policy instruction, the on-campus program will prepare students to be change-makers in the global transition to renewable energy.
Members of Assistant Professor Dan Ibarra's lab, including graduate affiliate Riley Havel, who was interviewed for this piece, identified a meteorite that landed in a carton of ice cream in Pennsylvania.
Swearer Center for Public Service
Trees, Heat and Human Health
This article highlights the engaged work that three ENVS concentrators are conducting to increase tree equity in Providence and bolster community health.
The Brown Daily Herald
What’s next for the economy? Billionaire Tom Steyer says it should be renewable energy.
IBES Director introduced Steyer as a “force of nature” in her opening remarks, describing him as “somebody who has taken all of their chips and gone all in on climate.”
Researchers from Brown, including IBES Associate Professor Tyler Kartiznel, contributed to a study that found giraffes' gut microbiome is more closely tied to the giraffe’s species than to the specific plants it consumes.
The New York Times
Hit by ‘Gut Punches,’ Scientists Band Together to Protest Trump
IBES and Sociology Professor Scott Frickel offered commentary about the tradition of science activism.
The Providence Journal
Can RI force fossil fuel companies to pay for climate change? Here's how.
IBES Professor Timmons Roberts noted that fossil fuel companies have "buried the negative impacts of their product like the tobacco companies did."
Kim Cobb offered commentary on the scientific evidence that climate change is harming people and the planet.