IBES at 10: A decade of innovative research and teaching

A decade of scholarly impact

The work of the institute’s faculty and students has spanned the globe, influencing local, state, federal and international policymakers. IBES’ scholarship has sparked new environmental initiatives and broadened understanding of the consequences of the global climate and environmental crisis — and how it impacts different populations, aspects of society and the environment itself.

In 2015, for instance, Brown sociologist Leah VanWey and ecologist Stephen Porder teamed up to explore ways to revitalize the Mata Atlântica rainforest in Brazil. The pair identified economic incentives most likely to encourage both societal benefits and restoration of the forest. Separately, in Greenland, a region particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, research teams from the lab of Brown hydrologist Laurence Smith combined high-resolution images with indigenous knowledge to study how fjord ice behavior affects daily life of communities in the area. Other work from the lab provided new insights into glacier dynamics and how they impacts sea-level rise.

In North America, Brown sociologist and demographer Elizabeth Fussell’s scholarship, focused on disaster migration, revealed that only the most rare and extreme wildfires significantly influence migration patterns in the U.S. IBES anthropologist Myles Lennon has worked to restore and steward a 900-acre forest with a Northern California-based Black and Indigenous land collective, and historian Bathsheba Demuth documented the environmental and cultural histories of Indigenous communities along the Yukon River, which flows through Alaska and parts of northern Canada. An award-winning book based on her scholarship, “Floating Coasts,” revealed intricate relationships between those communities and their changing ecosystem.

In Rhode Island, an IBES-affiliated team was awarded a $6 million National Science Foundation grant to create a coastal resilience research hub in New England. And a group led by atmospheric chemist Meredith Hastings is using air quality sensors placed on Brown’s campus and around Providence to provide real-time data to protect vulnerable local communities from air pollution.

“As anyone can see from our body of work, IBES scholars don't easily fit into any neat box,” said Scott Frickel, the institute’s director of research and a professor of environment and society and sociology. “We stress the importance of tackling questions that resist disciplinary answers and encourage scholars to confront the social complexity of environmental problems head-on with multiple kinds of approaches.”

Often this solutions-based approach also involves IBES scholars collaborating directly with elected officials or government agencies.

Epidemiologist and IBES affiliate David Savitz, for instance, led the Michigan governor’s PFAS Science Advisory Committee, advising the state on how to identify and handle contamination from the so-called “forever chemicals.” And Cobb has served on the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board since 2023, leveraging her expertise to provide independent counsel on U.S. intelligence matters. 

Cobb and IBES affiliate Baylor Fox-Kemper also played key roles in drafting the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. Amanda Lynch, a professor of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences and the institute’s inaugural director, advances science-based policy through her leadership role with the World Meteorological Organization.

“The world has slowly come to the realization that environmental problems are also fundamentally social problems that require social science to fully unpack and understand,” Frickel said. “As an institute, IBES researchers have really embraced that idea and have worked very hard the last 10 years to make that idea a reality.”

Empowering the next generation

A key element of the institute’s success over the past decade is its deep commitment to educating students across a range of environmental fields — through impactful research fellowships, summer internship programs and innovative course offerings. 

Students often play key roles in IBES faculty-led research. The Climate and Development Lab at IBES, which is a student-faculty think tank that informs climate change policy, tasks students with researching pressing climate issues and guides them in developing new policies. Students then present their ideas to policymakers, journalists and experts in an annual trip to Washington.

Students are leading the way in climate communications and engaging with the community in other ways, too. “Possibly,” a weekly podcast exploring practical climate topics, is largely researched, written and reported by a team of undergraduate students. It airs weekly on The Public’s Radio and other National Public Radio affiliates. Launched in 2017 by Porder, who is Brown’s associate provost for sustainability, and producer Megan Hall, many episodes leverage the expertise of Brown faculty and students, such as a recent episode that explored using gym equipment to make electricity.

In Environmental Studies 0110, a foundational IBES course, students apply their coursework to real-world projects. As part of the hands-on lab class, undergraduates work with local and national community partners on issues where humans and the environment intersect. Projects have included assessing forest management strategies, producing public outreach campaigns on utility shut-offs and conducting public health analyses on flood-prone neighborhoods.

“Students involved in engaged classes and research at IBES gain real-world experiences that not only allow them an opportunity to explore various career fields and interests, but also to help solve environmental problems with obstacles and setbacks they may not find in a classroom setting alone,” said Dawn King, a senior lecturer at IBES and the former director of undergraduate studies. “I've seen many students empowered through this work and use that experience to help shape their future.”

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