Dartmouth awarded NSF grant for new polar sciences, engineering grad program

Program will integrate science and policy in fight against climate change

The Dickey Center for International Understanding, through its Institute for Arctic Studies, has been awarded nearly $3 million by the National Science Foundation through its Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program.

The five-year grant supports the development of an interdisciplinary doctoral program in the polar sciences and engineering with a focus on rapid environmental change. "This grant will provide Dartmouth faculty and students so many exciting opportunities. It will support the development of new interdisciplinary curriculum addressing one of the most critical scientific challenges to face the coming generations," said Dean of the Faculty, Carol Folt. "The partners in this program have created a tremendous tool for educating and nurturing the next generation of polar and climate change researchers."

What sets this grant apart is its focus not just on polar sciences, but on the political and human aspects of climate change as well. "This grant will allow us to train a desperately-needed cohort of climate change scientists," said Ross Virginia, Professor of Environmental Studies, Director of the Institute of Arctic Studies and principal investigator of the IGERT project. His co-investigators include Ian Baker of Thayer School of Engineering, Xiahong Feng in Earth Sciences, Darren Ranco in Native Amercian and Environmental Studies Programs, and Mary Albert of the Thayer School of Engineering and the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL).

The Dickey Center will serve as the umbrella organization for the program, which will involve not only faculty sponsors from multiple Dartmouth departments and professional schools, but will also include partnerships with scientists from CRREL, and faculty and policy experts from the University of Greenland and the Inuit Circumpolar Council-Greenland. Kenneth Yalowitz, Director of the Dickey Center, explained that the Center is in a unique position to put the IGERT grant to good use. "We at the Dickey Center are very proud of this achievement and of Ross Virginia and the Institute of Arctic Studies," said Yalowitz. "Dickey's primary purpose is to promote international understanding and involvement in major international issues of the day across the Dartmouth community. The focus of the IGERT grant on climate change and human policy implications involves many different faculty and disciplines at Dartmouth and we are delighted that under Dickey's aegis, this will go forward."