U. announces creation of Rutgers Climate & Energy Institute

Last week, Rutgers announced the creation of the Rutgers Climate and Energy Institute (RCEI) on Cook campus as part of the Rutgers—New Brunswick Academic Master Plan, according to a press release.

The institute's goal will be to search for answers to the issues posed by climate change and expand on the work currently being done by the Rutgers Climate Institute, the Rutgers Energy Institute and the Rutgers Institute of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences.

"The new Rutgers Climate and Energy Institute will focus and expand upon existing resources to help build a resilient, equitable and sustainable climate future," Francine Conway, chancellor of Rutgers–New Brunswick, said in the release.

Julie Lockwood, a professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, who will be the interim director of the new institute, said it will bring a variety of climate change researchers together.

"The formation of RCEI brings together scholars working on the social and physical dimensions of climate change, low carbon energy transitions and climate and energy communication," she said.

In her role as interim director, Lockwood will oversee and hire the staff at RCEI while a search for a permanent director is planned to occur next year.

Funding for RCEI will be from the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and a three-year grant totaling $2.5 million as part of the Chancellor Challenge initiative.

The institute will be housed in the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health building on Cook campus. The current plan is to have the RCEI fully up and running by the summer of 2024.