As one of the significant contributions to climate science, Stanford University announced its new school to be built centered on climate and sustainability.
The School will take in many of the currently present units and departments and add many new ones.
The University is planning to make it functional in 2022. This step will help Stanford to rise to the top position from fourth in the list of Best Global Universities for Environment/ Ecology.
The new school is yet to be named and is the first to be established in seventy years. It will take shape on the basis of a plan developed by a faculty Blueprint Advisory Committee.
The committee worked for around a year to discuss options and make recommendations on the structure of the to be proposed new department reported Forbes.
Along with the faculty committee, a student group consisting of nine members also had extended meetings to put forward their recommendations.
They expressed their idea in the form of a report which defines the vision they have for the new school.
Stanford President Tessier-Lavigne said in the university’s announcement,
“Stanford is taking the historic step of creating the university’s first new school in 70 years in response to the scale and urgency of threats facing our planet.
With our faculty aligned in these new divisions, and with cross-cutting themes and an accelerator integrating expertise from the entire university to drive solutions, we will marshal our resources to serve humanity’s top priority, which is to create a future in which all humans and natural systems can thrive together in concert and in perpetuity.”
The school would be inclusive of a set of transitional academic divisions that will evolve into multiple departments as the school grows; cross-cutting themes organized within institutes to draw on the expertise of the entire university, and an accelerator to drive new technology and policy solutions, wrote Stanford Today.
Chris Field, director of the Stanford Woods Institute and professor of biology and of Earth system science added in the announcement “The new school will be a home for a university-wide emphasis on sustainability research.
The sustainability of the planet affects all of us, and will require people from all backgrounds to work together to create solutions.”
Provost Persis Drell has initiated the search for a dean to lead the new school. A faculty committee has commenced its meetings to develop strategies that would be essential in giving a new direction to this proposed school.
Until the new dean is hired, Tessier-Lavigne and Drell have asked Kathryn “Kam” Moler, vice provost and dean of research, to lead the next phase of creating the school.
Moler has sought the support of Stephan Graham, dean of the School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences, to assist her.
Moler and Graham have been monitoring the faculty-led efforts to design the school since the announcement was made in May 2020.
One unique feature of the school proposed is the “sustainability accelerator” which would encourage the partnership from within and outside parties to work on solving energy crisis problems.
Yi Cui, director of the Precourt Institute for Energy and professor of materials science and engineering said, “The accelerator bridges the gap between academia and external partners.
It will amplify the impact of energy technology and policy solutions launched through the Precourt Institute programs and help us to be even more successful.”
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