About Us

Mission

The Institute of the Environment collaborates across The University of Arizona campus to understand, communicate, and solve the environmental challenges facing our world, nation, and state, and to help the people of Arizona seize opportunities created by these challenges.  Our internal mission is to facilitate cross-campus collaboration and excellence on the environment. Externally, our goal is to promote and publicize the skills and knowledge that UA can offer to those seeking information, insight, and solutions to environmental problems and opportunities.

Environmental expertise is found throughout The University of Arizona in colleges, schools, departments, and centers that conduct research, offer courses, and promote outreach and extension on environmental issues. The Institute of the Environment provides one portal to this expertise through the list of more than 200 affiliated faculty and research staff, a directory of environmental research and education, a variety of collaborative programs and events, and a series of projects based in the Institute that are focused on translating environmental research for decision makers. 

Background

The Institute of the Environment was established in 2008 to build on the success of the Institute for the Study of Planet Earth (ISPE). Established in 1994, ISPE collaborated with more than 130 faculty and scores of students from 55 academic departments across campus to build the research and educational programs needed to understand environmental variability and change. ISPE forged new links to partners in other universities, the private sector, government agencies, and the public to help people understand how their environment varies and how to use that knowledge to plan for the future.

Over time sponsored funding of Institute-related activities tripled to nearly $20 million per year, with strong support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and a host of smaller federal, state, and corporate sources. The number of available awards, grants, and fellowships to faculty and graduate students for scholarly work also increased, along with the average amount of each award. Faculty affiliated with ISPE were involved in a wide range of successful small research projects, as well as some of the largest and most distinguished interdisciplinary projects in the country. These include the premier environmental science-oriented NSF Science and Technology Center for Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas (SAHRA) and Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS), the largest and best known of NOAA's Regional Integrated Science and Assessment projects. The wealth of disciplinary and interdisciplinary faculty expertise has made the UA one of the most fertile campuses in the country for the study of regional to global environmental variability and change.

In 2008, University leadership broadened the mission of ISPE and renamed it the Institute of the Environment to recognize environment as one of the flagship themes for The University of Arizona and to set the stage for new investments in environmental excellence, including new faculty positions. This coincided with the reorganization of key departments into new schools with an environmental focus and several exciting new research initiatives across campus, such as the UA management of Biosphere 2, the AZRISE solar initiative, and a large number of new projects in water, ecosystems, and climate adaptation—three themes in which the UA leads internationally.