Message from Woods Founding Directors

Right now, researchers at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment are working across disciplines and with decision-makers around the world to solve some of our most pressing environmental challenges.

Stanford climate researchers have informed drought planning in California by showing the connection between the state’s current historic drought and climate change. Woods has fostered new collaborations by bringing together computer scientists, earth scientists and economists to use satellite images to further our understanding of the connection between poverty and the environment. Woods-funded research teams have developed pioneering technology such as the resource recovery center on campus in which we can recover water, energy and nutrients at a scale beyond the lab bench. Others are currently using virtual reality to help people understand ocean acidification.

We are continuing to expand our work in educating the next generation of environmental leaders through our FUEL program, which helps undergraduates understand how they can influence environmental policy through their future careers.

Climate change, perhaps the most pressing environmental challenge of our time, is a core part and focus of all Woods centers and programs. So in that light it is only appropriate that the new Perry L. McCarty Director of the Stanford Woods Institute is Chris Field, a world-renowned climate scientist who has the ear of decision-makers at a global level as well as the esteem of every researcher working in the field.

Thank you to everyone who has supported and worked with the Stanford Woods Institute since its inception in 2003. Woods will continue to bring together faculty from different disciplines with private and public decision makers to actually solve those environment challenges that remain.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey R. Koseff

Barton “Buzz” Thompson

Perry L. McCarty Founding Directors

Meet Chris Field, the new Perry L. McCarty Director of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment