As the need to confront climate change gets more and more urgent, the University of Chicago is hoping to put academia on the call.
Yesterday, UChicago unveiled its newest institute, one they call “groundbreaking.”
The Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth will “balance the risks of a changing climate with the need for essential human progress,” according to its website, and will include a number of new degree programs for undergraduate and graduate students.
According to a press release, the institute will combine research in economics and climate policy, as well as key energy and climate technologies.
“The result is a first-of-its-kind institute that will produce new and deeper understandings of the climate challenge, as well as practical, effective solutions,” the press release reads.
Of course, plenty of academic institutions have turned their attention toward the climate fight. As more universities develop climate-related degree programming for incoming students, the need for solutions is front and center.
University President Paul Alivisatos said that the university is “distinctly poised” to be part of overcoming climate challenges.
“Faculty and students from across our ecosystem have expressed their enthusiasm and commitment to bringing our characteristic UChicago approach to the most difficult problems: asking the hardest questions, taking risks, joining ideas in surprising ways from across disciplines, and bringing rigor to every aspect,” Alivisatos said in a statement.
“This approach will inform an integrated set of new education programs which have the power to shape generations of critical thinkers and thoughtful leaders that is so urgently called for.”
The Institute plans to hire 20 new faculty members over the next five years, in interdisciplinary fields like law, political science, economics, materials engineering, and AI.
The existing Energy Policy Institute at the university will move into this new Institute and will continue to leverage its expertise on energy policy and market design.
On the education front, the Institute has announced a Curriculum on Climate and Sustainable Growth, which is foundational to a series of new degree programs.
“Through a 360-degree approach, the curriculum will expose students to the foundational ideas, tradeoffs, and complexities of the global climate and sustainable growth challenge in a way that no other university globally has to date,” the university shared.
Professor Michael Greenstone is the Institute’s founding faculty director.
“A game change is needed in the climate fight,” he said. “One that alters understanding of the climate and growth challenge — not just at the University of Chicago but around the world.”
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bring the power of the University of Chicago to bear on this challenge,” he added.
The new programs will include areas of research such as markets and policy, energy technologies, climate systems engineering, and more.
For undergraduate students, the Institute’s new curriculum will be diverse in nature while lending itself to specializing in areas of interest (like policy or data science, for example), so students can develop a vast knowledge base to confront climate change.
“The Institute’s interdisciplinary, collaborative approach is crucial for addressing the complexities of climate change,” Provost Katherine Baicker said.
“It will create a dynamic platform that engages the full breadth of insights across our campus community—from the arts and humanities, to the social sciences, to the biological sciences and beyond.”
For many faculty members involved with the Institute, this is an opportunity to help students achieve what those before them could never even dream of.
“To confront one of the greatest challenges of this generation, we must train the citizens, leaders, and workforce of tomorrow to have a comprehensive understanding of the problem and personally experience it and its many nuances from many different viewpoints,” said David Weisbach, the Walter J. Blum Professor of Law, who is leading the efforts to create the curriculum.
“Only armed with this foundational knowledge and authentic understanding can this next generation succeed in confronting the climate challenge in a way my generation was never able.”
This Institute is emblematic of UChicago’s long history of investing in groundbreaking fields of study. In fact, the university is responsible for founding fields of astrophysics, sociology, price theory economics, and molecular engineering, according to Alivasatos.
He believes the study of climate solutions and sustainable growth is among those legendary advancements.
“Throughout its history, the University of Chicago has revolutionized the world of general education, produced field-defining breakthroughs, and introduced entirely new disciplines and new ways of applying existing disciplines to novel problems,” Alivasatos said.
“It is this unique legacy that sets the University of Chicago apart and that will allow this new Institute to break down barriers to progress on climate change and create pathways for solutions where none were thought to exist.”
Header image courtesy of John Zich/University of Chicago
