News

Amid Boston Overdose Crisis, a Pair of Harvard Students Are Bringing Narcan to the Red Line

News

At First Cambridge City Council Election Forum, Candidates Clash Over Building Emissions

News

Harvard’s Updated Sustainability Plan Garners Optimistic Responses from Student Climate Activists

News

‘Sunroof’ Singer Nicky Youre Lights Up Harvard Yard at Crimson Jam

News

‘The Architect of the Whole Plan’: Harvard Law Graduate Ken Chesebro’s Path to Jan. 6

$800,000 in Grants Awarded to Climate Change Projects

University President Drew G. Faust discussed her role in several hot-button campus issues in her final sit-down interview of 2014 with The Crimson.
University President Drew G. Faust discussed her role in several hot-button campus issues in her final sit-down interview of 2014 with The Crimson.
By Samuel E. Stone, Crimson Staff Writer

As part of the Climate Change Solutions Fund’s inaugural round of awarding, seven Harvard affiliates collectively received roughly $800,000 in grants for projects focusing on climate change last week.

The fund, which University President Drew G. Faust created last April, seeks to support research about “long-term global climate change—as well as immediate threats to the natural environment,” according to a University press release.

University President Drew G. Faust
University President Drew G. Faust By Robert F Worley

Recipients included Jose Guillermo Cedeno Laurent, a research fellow at the School of Public Health; Emily M. Broad Leib, a lecturer at Harvard Law School; Michael B. McElroy, a School of Engineering and Applied Sciences professor; Daniel G. Nocera, a professor in the Chemistry and Chemical Biology department; Rohini Pande, a Kennedy School professor; Jisung Park, a Graduate School of Arts and Sciences doctoral candidate; and James H. Stock, a professor at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and a Kennedy School of Government faculty member.

The focuses and disciplines of the projects varied, with Leib looking at reducing food waste, Pande researching market-based policy design to mitigate air pollution in India, and Stock investigating market impediments to the penetration of biofuels.

Autumn Bennett, program coordinator at Harvard's Office of the Vice Provost for Research, emphasized the University’s commitment to climate change research in a statement on behalf of Richard McCullough, Harvard's Vice Provost for Research.

“Harvard has the capacity and responsibility to address the challenge of climate change boldly and with conviction,” the statement said. “Shaping a more sustainable future, both on and off our campus, will depend on the insights of our scientists and engineers, as well as our experts across a wide range of disciplines.”

The announcement of the grant winners came just a day before protesters stormed Massachusetts Hall demanding that Harvard divest from fossil fuels as part of an effort to combat climate change.

The fund will accept online proposals later this year for its second round of grants. The value of the fund, according to the press release, was $20 million at the time of its creation.

—Staff writer Samuel E. Stone can be reached at samuelstone@college.harvard.edu.

Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

Tags
Central AdministrationResearchDrew FaustFacultyUniversityEnvironmentUniversity NewsFaculty News