 Dr. Benjamin Santer (right), one of the world’s leading scientists in the identification of human-caused climate change, delivered the fourth annual Fred Keeley Lecture on Environmental Policy on Thursday, May 8, at UC Santa Cruz. Dr. Santer's talk was entitled:"Climate Fingerprints: How do we know human activities have influenced global climate change?”
At the lecture, Chancellor Blumenthal announced that the STEPS Institute has received a gift from community leaders, Benjamin and Ruth Hammett, to fund student research on climate change. Named "The Benjamin and Ruth Hammett Award for Research on Climate Change," these funds will be available to graduate and undergraduate students for research starting in Fall 2008. A request for proposals with description of the requirements will be posted online by Friday, May 23.
Benjamin Santer has been a key contributor to all four of the Scientific Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore. “Ben Santer made seminal contributions to the Nobel Prize-winning work of the IPCC,” said Susan Solomon, Co-Chair of the IPCC Working Group. “In particular, he was the key scientific leader in the pioneering statement of the second assessment report that there was a discernible human influence on climate.” Bio: Ben Santer
 The Fred Keeley Lecture was followed by a Roundtable Discussion on May 9, entitled: "Climate Solutions: Let's get moving—but where and how?" It featured a panel discussion led by Benjamin Santer, Fred Keeley, Elizabeth Thompson from Ecology Action, and Daniel Press, Chair of Environmental Studies. Over fifty participants attended, including Santa Cruz elected officials, environmental managers, media, and UCSC faculty and students. |Agenda|
This UCSC lecture series is named in honor of Fred Keeley (left), civic leader and former member of the State Assembly, who for many years has contributed to shaping environmental policy in California.
Bio: Fred Keeley
The STEPS Institute was established in 2002 as a campus-wide effort to facilitate interdisciplinary environmental research across the university’s Division of Physical and Biological Sciences, Division of Social Sciences, and Baskin School of Engineering. Since September 2007, marine biologist and ecologist Dr. James A. Estes has assumed responsibilities as the STEPS Interim Director.
Programs: The STEPS Institute works to increase dialogue among environmental researchers, civic groups, and policymakers through a variety of interdisciplinary lectures, seminars and workshops. These efforts are leading to broader collaborations among all these diverse groups and promoting innovations in environmental research. The Institute also provides research grants to faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students. Most of the funds are for research projects that either link multiple research laboratories at UCSC or link UCSC laboratories with outside agencies or policy makers.These activities have been made possible through generous contributions from donors, and through funds from UCSC. We hope in coming years to explore an even wider range of interdisciplinary collaborations within the Institute’s two major initiatives.
Mission Statement: The increased pace and magnitude of human activities over the past century have created rapid environmental changes worldwide. These changes are interconnected, and they are rapidly altering all ecosystems on earth. Our societies have produced, in effect, intertwined global experiments whose long-term effects are unknown. The STEPS Institute fosters research and policy that explore these potential effects. Our efforts have coalesced into research on three major initiatives:
- The effects of climate change
- Conservation of biodiversity
- Alterations in the earth's water systems
Through these initiatives, we are forging new collaborations among faculty researchers, policy makers, and environmental managers. STEPS is also assisting in the development of new multi-user environmental research facilities at UCSC.
Last updated:5/14/08
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