Strengthening Stony Brook's Leadership in Climate and Sustainability
September 10, 2024
Dear Stony Brook Faculty and Staff,
We hope your Fall semester is off to a great start. We wanted to take a moment to
update the campus community on several new initiatives underway as we continue to
strengthen our leadership in the areas of climate and sustainability.
The Stony Brook Collaborative for the Earth (C4E) was established in September 2023
to build on Stony Brook’s academic strengths in areas related to climate change and
the environment. C4E’s work is guided by a desire to support the health of our planet through breaking
down the barriers between scholarly disciplines, between environmental problems and
their solutions, and between campus and our community.
In this endeavor, C4E works closely with the Office of Climate and Sustainability
Programming, also established in the Fall of 2023, to reimagine approaches to education
in the broad areas of climate, sustainability, clean energy, and environmental justice,
as well as to connect Stony Brook students, faculty, and staff to initial New York
Climate Exchange activities.
We are excited to announce a series of upcoming town halls to allow the Stony Brook
community to hear about our work over the past year and discuss how to get involved
in future initiatives and opportunities afforded by the C4E and the New York Climate
Exchange. These town halls will be highly interactive and are a great opportunity
for faculty and staff to help shape future research and educational programming. Lunch
will be provided. You can register for these events via the links below:
- C4E Town Hall #1: Fostering Interdisciplinary Environmental Research - October 2, 2024 - Registration Link
- C4E Town Hall #2: Reimagining Academic Programs-November 4, 2024 - Registration Link
- C4E Town Hall #3: Strengthening Community and Industrial Partnerships - December 2, 2024 - Registration Link
You can read briefly about many of the topics and updates we will cover, in the below
summary. We hope to see you at our town halls and other programming this fall.
Our key achievements so far:
- Established the annual Stony Brook Environmental Forum Spring Debate: The inaugural debate tackled offshore wind.
- C4E Podcast: In collaboration with the Stony Brook School of Communication and Journalism, C4E launched the “C4E Presents” podcast hosted by Dr. Heather Lynch.
- Organized a suite of cross-campus interest groups on topics ranging from offshore wind to environmental justice to new frameworks for
graduate programs.
Engaged with Writing & Rhetoric 102 faculty to encourage students to write about offshore wind and strengthen their research and writing skills. - NY Climate Exchange AI Innovation challenge: Stony Brook students were invited to compete in the first-ever Climate Exchange AI Innovation Challenge, where teams from eight universities presented cutting-edge solutions to stormwater management challenges faced by New York City.
- NYCE Summer Internship Program: Two Stony Brook students were selected to participate in the inaugural NYCE summer internship program that allowed them to expand their perspectives on addressing climate issues at the community level by engaging with climate nonprofits and project-based learning.
- Offshore Wind Workforce Lunch & Learn: In collaboration with the Strategic Partnership for Industrial Resurgence ( & Economic Development, offshore wind industry professionals engaged students and faculty at Stony Brook in specific majors about applications of skills and coursework to future careers.
- The Master of Science in Science Communication now offers a concentration in Climate Communication, a collaboration between the School of Communication and Journalism and the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. Students take courses in climate and environmental communication, public risk communication, and can choose from a range of electives such as environmental management, decision support, and communication about policy.
What to expect in 2024-2025:
- C4E is hosting a field trip to Block Island Offshore Wind Farm on October 25 to see the wind turbines up close. The event includes students, faculty, and staff from multiple departments.
- Science on Stage: Climate Edition: Three professional playwrights will each engage with a Stony Brook University researcher working on climate change. From these conversations, the playwrights will create three short plays about the research or the life of scientists. The resulting plays will be publicly presented by top professional actors, followed by a panel discussion with the playwright/scientist teams. To attend the event on October 28 from 3:30-6:00 pm please register using this link.
- Nuclear 101: Drs. Jason Trelewicz and Lance Snead from the Institute for Advanced Computational Sciences and the Stony Brook Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering will present an introduction to nuclear for the non-scientist. This event will be held on November 18 from 12:30-1:50 pm.
- Science & Cinema: Screenings of Oliver Stone’s Nuclear Now and Stony Brook’s Heidi Hutner’s Radioactive. The screenings will be on November 6, 2024, and February 25, 2025, respectively, from 5:00-7:30 pm.
- The next Stony Brook Environmental Forum Spring Debate will be held on April 18, 2025 to discuss the motion tentatively titled “Nuclear energy is a technically and economically feasible means to address our future energy needs in light of our carbon emissions goals.”
- In partnership with the New York Climate Exchange, Stony Brook will be participating in a series of Ideas Labs on climate solution topics, as well as preparing for next year’s internship program.
- A new 1-credit Pop-up Course on climate topics will be launched in the Spring of 2025.
We encourage you to join us and welcome your collaboration and involvement in our initiatives. If you have any questions, please contact Jennifer Gilday.
Sincerely,
Kevin and Heather
Kevin Reed
Associate Provost, Climate and Sustainability Programming
Heather Lynch
Director, Collaborative for the Earth