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ECI Partners and related groups

(alphabetical by acronym - asterisks denotes participating academic units)

• Anthropolgy (ANTH)

  Faculty of the Department of Anthropology at Brown do research on a wide variety of topics and in many locations. Many faculty collaborate with colleagues in other departments and universities and conduct research that crosses disciplinary boundaries. Graduate students in the department are encouraged to do likewise.
• Brown-MBL Graduate Program in Biological and Environmental Sciences (BMBL)
  The Brown-MBL Graduate Program in Biological and Environmental Sciences offers students the chance to work with scientists at both institutions and to conduct research in a variety of areas.
• Center for Environmental Studies* (CES)
  The Center for Environmental Studies has strength in the areas of land-use history, climate change policy, urban environmental health, environmental literacy, watershed-based planning and policy, water quality issues, and environmental justice, as well a 24-year history of interdisciplinary research and service learning.
• Community Health (DCH)
  The Department of Community Health has a broad mandate in the School of Medicine. The overarching academic theme of the Department has been to understand and manipulate the factors that affect the health of human populations. In view of emerging insights and opportunities associated with this theme, it is appropriate that the Department has been flexible in accommodating and investing in new programs and serves as the focus of activities in population-based medicine and health.
• Economics (ECON)
  The Department of Economics at Brown is a vibrant and dynamic collection of scholars united by a commitment to path-breaking research and high quality teaching. The Department provides to both undergraduate and graduate students the technical and economic reasoning skills that will ensure long-term success in their chosen professions and a lifelong passion for thinking systematically about the world around them.
• Ecology and Evolutionary Biology* (EEB)
  The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) has major research programs working on problems in marine and coastal community ecology, microbial ecology, plant population biology and genetics, conservation biology, and paleontology. EEB also has strong research ties to the Ecosystem Center and the Bay Paul Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) at Woods Hole as part of the new institutional partnership between Brown and MBL.
• The Energy Initiative
  Brown University and Draper Laboratories have established a partnership to work on developing and applying new energy technologies. Other energy-focused activties include a weekly seminar during the academic year, organized in 2009-2010 by Assistant Professor Derek Stein, and a series of energy-related research projects.
• Geological Sciences* (GEO)
  The Department of Geological Sciences has a longstanding world-class reputation in earth systems history, and current faculty provide expertise in remote sensing, land-cover dynamics, GIS, the reconstruction of past climates and global climate modeling, hydrology, estuarine oceanography, and stable isotope biogeochemistry.
• Marine Biological Laboratory* (MBL)
  The partnership with the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA is a separate graduate training program at Brown. It involves the Division of Biology and Medicine, including the Departments of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology (MMI), Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology, and Biotechnology (MPPB), and Neuroscience. Faculty in CES and the Department of Geological Sciences are also involved.
• Physics* (PHY) The Department of Physics, whose research lies at the foundation of the natural sciences, has strengths in the fields of condensed matter and biological physics that contribute to our understanding of environmental change, and has researchers studying the physics of climate change.
• Population Studies Training Center* (PSTC)
  The Population Studies Training Center has internationally recognized interdisciplinary research strength in spatial demography, economic demography, and population health. Specifically, PSTC faculty associated with the Environmental Change Initiative span the departments of Economics and Sociology.
• Superfund Research Program (SRP)
  The Superfund Research Program (SRP) at Brown University, titled "REUSE IN RI: A State-Based Approach To Complex Exposures", brings together scientists with interdisciplinary training from different backgrounds to work together in a cooperative and synergistic enterprise. Our biomedical researchers aim to develop new approaches to evaluating toxicant responses in sensitive and susceptible individuals that can be applied to real world exposure scenarios involving complex mixtures. Our engineering researchers will extend their laboratory-based research to modeling and remediation of complex polluted sites using novel materials and strategies. Together with our communications expert and team members from the State Departments of Health and Environmental Management, we will have a major impact on the understanding of the human health consequences and management of contaminated sites in Rhode Island and other heavily industrialized states.
• Sociology* (SOC)
  The Department of Sociology has strength in the areas of social demography, population and development, comparative international development, and environment and health. Faculty are involved in domestic and international research, with special emphasis on demographic change, and political and economic development in developing countries.
• The Watson Institute for International Studies (WATSON)
  The Global Environment Program at the Watson Institute for International Studies focuses on international training, climate change policy, population-environment interactions, and global environmental policy. Through the GEP, the Watson International Scholars of the Environment Program brings together environmental leaders from throughout the developing world to take advantage of the facilities at Brown and to pursue courses, workshops, symposia, professional networking and research projects.

Student Groups

The most up-to-date listing of student environmental groups can be found at the Brown is Green web site: http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Brown_Is_Green/focus/student.html

 

Interdisciplinarian

Building on Relationships:

Brown University has many already-strong academic units. Structured as an iniative, ECI is uniquely positioned to track the complex interweavings of environmental change issues; to coordinate and focus interdisciplinary expertise on the rapidly evolving landscape of environmental change.

Facilitating Synergism:

Currently, most research and education opportunities occur in between traditional disciplines where they take advantage of interdisciplinary synergism. ECI facilitates and coordinates that synergism, bringing together investigators with complimentary expertise to think about their reseach in new ways.

 

Opportunities

Opportunities in research and education change very rapidly, as our understanding evolves very rapidly. Through our participating academic units and in accordance with Brown’s unique University-College philosophy, ECI aims to involve undergraduates, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows in the pursuit of interdisciplinary research. Please explore our partners’ academic opportunities for the very latest the field has to offer.