Research Centers and Programs

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The 30 Columbia-based research centers and programs listed below are home to over 850 scientists, students, and postdoctoral fellows working to advance understanding in engineering, biology, and earth, health, and social sciences. All of the complex interdisciplinary work of the Earth Institute is grounded in the hundreds of research projects based at these centers.

Research Units of EI

Unit	Unit Heads
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) The Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) is a leading research institution where more than 200 research scientists seek fundamental knowledge about the origin, evolution and future of the natural world. LDEO scientists observe Earth on a global scale, from its deepest interior to the outer reaches of its atmosphere, on every continent and in every ocean. They decipher the long record of the past, monitor the present, and seek to foresee Earth’s future. From global climate change to earthquakes, volcanoes, nonrenewable resources, environmental hazards and beyond, the Observatory’s fundamental challenge is to provide a rational basis for the difficult choices faced by humankind in the stewardship of this fragile planet.	Michael Purdy
Center for Rivers and Estuaries The Center for River and Estuaries is an association of scientists from Columbia University that study various aspects of rivers and estuaries world wide including the distribution of sediments, the transport and flux of sediments, contaminants, carbon, nutrients, organic material, and aerosols, the evolution and linkage of marshes and wetlands. Much of the research of this center is done in the Hudson River in the vicinity of Columbia University. This opens also the opportunity for several outreach activities for communities, K-12, and higher education.	Robin Bell
Center for Climate Systems Research (CCSR) The overriding objective of all projects conducted at CCSR is to provide an enhanced understanding of the Earth's climate sensitivity and variability, as well as the forcing and feedback mechanisms that control them. The center is especially concerned with aspects of the climate system that have the potential to impact human populations and environmental stability. As with all change, climate change can be viewed as a problem to avoid or a challenge requiring adaptation. One of our main objectives is to better delineate the types of climate-related changes that societies will face during the coming decades to help determine the severity of the impacts. Our goal is to provide information that will help governments, industries and citizens prepare for future climate-related problems or to seize the opportunities that may be presented if environmental changes can be rendered more predictable.	Leonard Druyan
Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC) CERC's two-part mission is to build environmental leadership and to solve complex problems, in order to stem the loss of biological diversity and achieve environmental sustainability. CERC is a consortium of five world-renowned scientific institutions: Columbia University, the American Museum of Natural History, the New York Botanical Garden, Wildlife Conservation Society, and Wildlife Trust. CERC is headquartered at Columbia University and is part of Columbia's Earth Institute. CERC believes the only way to build environmental leadership and solve complex environmental problems is to synthesize research with education and training.	Nancy Degnan Shahid Naeem
The Earth Engineering Center (EEC) The Earth Engineering Center (EEC) is the engineering unit of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Its mission is to develop technologies that can help in the sustainable development of the Earth's resources: Minerals, energy, water, and the environment. The Research Associates of EEC include Columbia engineers from various disciplines as well as specialists from other universities and organizations. The resource needs posed by the population increase and standards of living in the 20th century were met by enormous advances in technology. However, the cumulative impacts of the intensive use of the Earth's resources, and the attendant generation of wastes on climate and ecology, have emerged as a major concern and a threat to further development. It is now clear that the use of energy, water and materials is inextricably linked with the environment at local and global scales and that technological developments in the 21st century must address the needs of both "market" and "environment". This is the domain of Columbia's Earth Engineering Center (EEC).	Nickolas Themelis
Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy (LCSE) The mission of the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy is to develop technologies and institutions to ensure a sufficient supply of environmentally sustainable energy for all humanity. To meet this goal, the Center supports research programs in energy science, engineering and policy across Columbia University to develop technical and policy solutions that will satisfy the world’s future energy needs without threatening to destabilize the Earth's natural systems. This mission is shaped by two global challenges. First, an increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, due in large part to human use of fossil fuels, if unchecked is likely to disrupt global climate systems and impose negative consequences for human welfare. Second, a larger and increasingly wealthy world population will create greater demand for limited energy resources. To meet these two challenges, human societies must move beyond existing energy systems to develop new sources, technologies and infrastructures.	Klaus Lackner
The Center for Global Health and Economic Development (CGHED) Recognizing that sustainable improvements in public health and economic development can not occur in isolation, the Center for Global Health and Economic Development (CGHED) -- based at the Earth Institute at Columbia University in the City of New York -- works with local partners to address these challenges, creating sustainable models for health and development and replicable systems for health care delivery. CGHED programs and initiatives don’t focus merely on HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, maternal mortality, or child health, but also seek to help countries meet the Millennium Development Goals, which aim to reduce hunger, increase access to food security and education, and promote gender equality, among other essential targets to enable the poor to escape extreme poverty.	Joanna Rubinstein
The Center for National Health Development in Ethiopia (CNHDE) The Center for National Health Development in Ethiopia (CNHDE) is a Project of the Earth Institute at Columbia University involved in supporting efforts for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in Ethiopia. The Center's activities focus on assisting the implementation of the Health Extension Package (HEP) in Ethiopia, coordinating the efforts for achievement of the Millennium Development Goals for Ethiopia, coordinating the Malaria Quick Impact Initiative for Africa, and coordinating the Millennium Villages project in Ethiopia.	Awash Teklehaimanot
The Center on Globalization and Sustainable Development (CGSD) CGSD manages the social sciences activities of the Earth Institute. Our mission is to augment the intellectual community using social sciences approaches to address the most pressing international development problems of our time. This mission overlaps with those of social science departments across the university, with whose faculty we collaborate. The hallmark of CGSD is interdisciplinary research and policy application. We operate on the underlying principle that because development problems cross disciplines - from the environment to disaster preparedness to public health to economic planning - so must the solutions.	Geoffrey Heal
The Center for the Study of Science and Religion (CSSR) Sciences respond to a felt need to understand the world, and religions respond to a felt need for the world to have meaning. From these different starting points, one issue emerges at the junction of any science and any religion: are these felt needs commensurate? The Center for the Study of Science and Religion (CSSR) was founded in the summer of 1999 as a forum for the examination of issues that lie at the boundary of these two complementary ways of comprehending the world and our place in it. By examining the intersections that cross over the boundaries between one or another science and one or another religion, the CSSR hopes to stimulate dialogue and encourage understanding. The CSSR is not interested in promoting one or another science or religion, and hopes that the service provided will be of benefit and offer understanding into all sciences and religions.	Robert Pollack
The Center on Capitalism and Society The Center on Capitalism and Society was conceived in response to a long-unanswered question in economics: What historical accidents or strategies explain the remarkably high prosperity and productivity generally observed in the American economy? Although economic historians in the past century nominated several explanations – the work ethic, Yankee ingenuity, and the beckoning frontier – modern economics suggests the answer may lie in America’s system of economic institutions. But, if so, which institutions are effective and quantitatively important, which unimportant, even ineffective? That question is plenty hard: it requires both detailed study of the workings of individual institutions, their flaws and malfunctions, and comparison of economic performance with that in countries possessing key institutional differences without being so radically different as to be non-comparable.	Edmund Phelps
The Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CSUD) The mission of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CSUD) is the creation of physically and socially sustainable cities. CSUD’s initial project, funded by the Volvo Research and Education Foundations (VREF), is to establish ongoing research and educational exchanges in cities in developing countries focused on land use and transport planning with the goal of designing plans and policies for sustainable growth. CSUD, founded in 2004, is one of three Centers of Excellence established by VREF to conduct interdisciplinary research on coping with the increasing complexities of urban transportation.	Elliott Sclar
Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) The Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) is a center within the Earth Institute at Columbia University. CIESIN works at the intersection of the social, natural, and information sciences, and specializes in on-line data and information management, spatial data integration and training, and interdisciplinary research related to human interactions in the environment. CIESIN's mission is to provide access to and enhance the use of information worldwide, advancing understanding of human interactions in the environment and serving the needs of science and public and private decision making.	Bob Chen
International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) The IRI was founded on the belief that scientific breakthroughs in our understanding of climate can help developing countries defeat persistent and often devastating problems. Climate has an impact on health, water, agriculture and most other vital sectors, giving us the opportunity to help societies confront a whole range of hardships-from malaria epidemics to food shortages. Population growth, changing livelihoods, rapid urbanization, and climate uncertainty put pressure on resources and ecosystems. Under these heightened stress conditions even minor climate fluctuations are significant.	Steve Zebiak
The Center for Hazards and Risk Research (CHRR) Columbia University's physical and social scientists are undertaking a new research program in disasters and risk management motivated by a clear and compelling need to reduce the catastrophic impacts on society from natural and human-induced hazards. The Center for Hazards and Risk Research (CHRR) draws on Columbia's acknowledged expertise in Earth and environmental sciences, engineering, social sciences, public policy, public health and business. This program infuses the scientific and technological perspective on disasters with a deep appreciation of the social, political, and economic realities of the developing, as well as the developed, world. It requires a renewed focus on translating the key scientific concepts of probability and uncertainty into a language and set of rules useful to decision-makers.	Art Lerner-Lam
The Columbia Water Center The Columbia Water Center is leading intellectual inquiry into the assessment, prediction and solution of the growing scarcity of fresh water. The Water Center conducts research on water shortages in some of the most challenging settings in the world, and also acts as the focal point for water-related research at Columbia.	Upmanu Lall

Partnership Institutions

Institution	Directors
The Black Rock Forest Consortium The Black Rock Forest Consortium is a unique alliance of colleges and universities, public and independent K-12 schools, and leading scientific and cultural institutions that operates the nearly 4000-acre Black Rock Forest, located 50 miles north of New York City in the Hudson Highlands, as a field station for scientific research, education, and conservation.The Forest features dramatic topography with over 1000 feet of relief, numerous lakes and streams, and high habitat and species diversity. Activities include faculty and doctoral research, staff and teacher training, undergraduate education and research, and elementary, middle, and high school programs. The Consortium also emphasizes ecological resource management, “green” and “smart” construction, and environmental monitoring.	William Schuster
Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED) CRED is an interdisciplinary center that studies individual and group decision making under climate uncertainty and decision making in the face of environmental risk. CRED's objectives address the human responses to climate change and climate variability as well as improved communication and increased use of scientific information on climate variability and change. Located at Columbia University, CRED is affiliated with The Earth Institute and the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP). CRED was established under the National Science Foundation Program Decision Making Under Uncertainty (DMUU).	Elke Weber David Krantz
Cooperative Institute for Climate Applications and Research (CICAR) CICAR was established in November 2003 as a research partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Columbia University In The City of New York. The CICAR research themes are: modeling, understanding, prediction, and assessment of climate variability and change; development, collection, analysis, and archiving of instrumental and Paleoclimate data; and development of the application of climate variability and change prediction and assessment to provide information for decision makers and assess risk to water resources, agriculture, health, and policy. CICAR provides climate information to society through education and the development of applications and tools for assessing climate-related risks.	Yochanan Kushnir
Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), at Columbia University in New York City, is a laboratory of the Earth Sciences Division of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and a unit of the Columbia University Earth Institute. Research at GISS emphasizes a broad study of global climate change. Current research emphasizes a broad study of Global Change, which is an interdisciplinary initiative addressing natural and man-made changes in our environment that occur on various time scales (from one-time forcings such as volcanic explosions, to seasonal/annual effects such as El Niño, and on up to the millennia of ice ages) and affect the habitability of our planet. Program areas at GISS may be roughly divided into the categories of climate forcings, climate impacts, model development, Earth observations, planetary atmospheres, paleoclimate, radiation, atmospheric chemistry, and astrophysics and other disciplines.	James Hansen
Laboratory of PopulationsLaboratory of Populations The Laboratory is a joint center between Columbia University and The Rockefeller University, and studies populations and quantitative theories relevant to them. Populations exhibit phenomena that are difficult to deduce from the characteristics of an isolated member. For example, the prevalence of a disease in a population is only indirectly connected to the course of disease in an individual. To develop concepts helpful for understanding populations, the lab studies concrete problems in demography, epidemiology, ecology and population genetics.	Joel Cohen

Programs of EI

Programs	Program Heads
The ADVANCE Program The mission of the Earth Institute ADVANCE program is to increase the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women scientists and engineers at Columbia University. To achieve this mission, ADVANCE is working toward the following goals: Change the demographics of the science and engineering community at Columbia through innovative hiring practices and by targeting emerging and established women and minority leaders. Cultivate an environment that fosters and attracts women and minority leaders in science and engineering. Stimulate an institutional cultural shift based on social science research about gender and race.	Robin Bell
The Earth ClinicThe Earth Clinic As the Earth Institute’s main practice instrument, the Earth Clinic is designed to serve the immediate needs of clients in developing countries by creatively responding to pressing economic and environmental problems. These needs are identified and analyzed; then suitable applications or interventions that help to ensure sustainable development are devised. The Earth Clinic offers science-based assistance to urgent issues of economic development, public health, energy systems, water management, agriculture and infrastructure. The clinic’s work differs from traditional consulting in that it brings a solid academic component to problem solving. An important element in this effort is close work with local partners on design and implementation to ensure long-term project effectiveness.	Peter Schlosser
Urban Design Lab (UDL) The Urban Design Lab for Sustainable Development addresses the need for a comprehensive, design-based approach regarding the longer-range future of sustainable urbanism. New York City and its regional context is seen as a core model for problem-solving related to sustainable urban futures everywhere, including Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. While based in the Urbanization Initiative, UDL’s multidisciplinary team structure and comprehensive approach encompass all of the Earth Institute’s cross-cutting themes: Climate and Society; Water; Energy; Poverty; Ecosystems; Global Health; Food, Ecology and Nutrition; Hazards and Risk; and Urbanization	Richard Plunz
The Program on Science, Technology, and Global DevelopmentThe Program on Science, Technology, and Global Development The Program on Science, Technology, and Global Development is dedicated to study of the processes of technological change, and of the advance of the scientific knowledge that underlies many modern technologies, in order to gain a better understanding, both of the factors that have led to such amazing progress in certain areas, and of the reasons why that progress has been so uneven. Our belief is that better understanding in itself can improve significantly the policymaking processes bearing on the issues. But the program is dedicated, as well, to trying to inform directly the policymaking processes in key areas.	Richard Nelson
The Global Roundtable on Climate Change (GROCC) The Global Roundtable on Climate Change brings together high-level, critical stakeholders from all regions of the world — including senior executives from the private sector and leaders of international governmental and non-governmental organizations — to discuss and explore areas of potential consensus regarding core scientific, technological, and economic issues critical to shaping sound public policies on climate change. The Roundtable provides an extraordinary opportunity for stakeholder to stakeholder discussion of complex issues related to climate change in a relaxed, private, productive and information-driven environment. Roundtable participants are drawn from all regions of the world and every major economic sector, including industry manufacturing, transportation, non-renewable resources, renewable resources, energy, finance, insurance, health, food and agriculture. Participants also include leading figures from international organizations, national and local governments, academia, and non-governmental organizations. Participation in the Roundtable is by invitation only.	David Downie Kate Brash
Tropical Agriculture and Rural Environment Program The Tropical Agriculture and Rural Environment Program of the Earth Institute at Columbia University is dedicated to addressing the interactions between agricultural production, environmental quality and human well-being. Through research, policy advising, education and training, the program seeks to address the links between environment, agriculture, health, poverty, and economic growth. The program uses science, technology, management, and policy tools to improve environmental quality, nutrition and farmers' incomes through sustainable agricultural practices in developing countries. It focuses on the tropics, where expansion and intensification of agriculture is needed to improve food security, but risks harming the long-term integrity of the environment. The Tropical Agriculture Program leads the Earth Institute's initiative The Millennium Villages Project; provides support to the MDG Centers in Nairobi, Kenya and Bamako, Mali; administered the U.N. Millennium Project Task Force on Hunger; and conducts publicity and relevant research.	Pedro Sanchez
MPA in Environmental Science and Policy The Master of Public Administration in Environmental Science and Policy trains sophisticated public managers and policymakers, who apply innovative, systems-based thinking to environmental issues. The program challenges students to think systemically and act pragmatically. To meet this challenge, we offer a high-quality graduate program in management and policy analysis that emphasizes practical skills and is enriched by ecological and planetary science. The approach reflects the system-level thinking that is needed to understand ecological interactions and maintain the health of Earth’s interconnected ecological, institutional, economic, and social systems.	Steve Cohen
MA in Climate and Society Advances in climate modeling and prediction have changed the landscape of human knowledge. For drought-stricken farmers of the developing world, for shantytown dwellers at the mercy of hurricanes and mud slides, for governments trying to make the most of limited resources as they strive for development, and for the multibillion dollar insurance and food industries, this new scientific knowledge can offer better ways to respond to the problems and opportunities created by a varying climate. But decision makers must understand how to make effective use of this new knowledge. The need for professionals who understand the links between climate and society is acute, and grows ever more so as human activity alters the global atmosphere. The Columbia M.A. in Climate and Society gives you the knowledge and skills to meet this need.	Mark Cane
PhD in Sustainable DevelopmentPhD in Sustainable Development Housed at the School of International and Public Affairs, the PhD program continues Columbia's recent initiatives in multidisciplinary doctoral education and also reflects SIPA's longstanding commitment to interdisciplinary graduate social science education for policymakers and analysts. The purpose of the PhD in Sustainable Development is to create a generation of scholars and professionals equipped to deal with some of the most crucial problems in the world today. By combining elements of a traditional graduate education in social science, particularly economics, with a significant component of training in the natural sciences, the program's graduates will be uniquely situated to undertake serious research and policy assessments with the goal of sustainable development. The program includes a set of rigorous core requirements, but also provides students with the flexibility to pursue in-depth research in a broad variety of critical policy issue areas.	Joshua Graff-Zivin

Partnership Programs

Programs

Directors

Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment The Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment seeks to be a leader on issues related to foreign direct investment (FDI) in the global economy. The CPII focuses on the analysis and teaching of the implications of FDI for public policy and international investment law. Its objectives are to analyze important topical policy-oriented issues related to FDI, develop and disseminate practical approaches and solutions, and provide students with a challenging learning environment. The Vale Columbia Center is a joint program of the Columbia Law School and The Earth Institute at Columbia University.

Karl Sauvant