School Notes: School of the Environment
March/April 2016

Center to study energy and health

Michelle Bell, the Mary E. Pinchot Professor of Environmental Health at F&ES, was recently awarded a five-year, $10 million EPA grant to study the relationships between air quality, energy policy, climate change, and public health. The grant will be used to establish a new multidisciplinary research center at F&ES, with major participation from Johns Hopkins University and other institutions. The EPA funded only three such centers nationwide. The SEARCH (Solutions for Energy, AiR, Climate, and Health) Center, directed by Bell, will host four research projects and involve more than two dozen researchers at nine institutions. “The center is designed to have a high level of interdisciplinary collaboration,” Bell said. “Our research will link policies and research questions that historically have been largely studied separately. Our overall aim is to provide scientific evidence that can inform more effective decision making to improve public health.”

Students, faculty help drive success at Paris climate talks

For the dozens of F&ES students, faculty, and staff who were in Paris for the landmark climate talks in December, it was more than just a rare chance to watch history unfold up close. They helped make history. Throughout the COP21 talks, members of the community—including 60 students from F&ES and Yale College—filled a wide range of roles. Working with national governments, NGOs, international coalitions, student organizations, and Yale-based programs, they served as delegates at the conference, provided translation, spoke on panels, presented original research, hosted side events, and covered breaking news on social media. “Being in the negotiating rooms and seeing delegates work tirelessly, sometimes overnight, for two weeks to converge on these issues really put the enormity of the climate change issue in perspective for me,” said Lucian Go ’16MEM who, as a delegate for the Republic of Palau, was tasked with monitoring certain parts of the negotiations. “It was encouraging to see a lot of countries show a willingness to compromise on key issues in the spirit of moving forward.”