EUGENE, Ore. -- (Oct. 5, 2009) -- A University of Oregon social scientist has received a five-year, $472,494 grant from the National Science Foundation to continue a six-year-old program aimed at helping early career researchers who recently earned doctoral degrees pursue interdisciplinary and policy-relevant research on climate change.
The project, the "DISsertation initiative for the advancement of Climate Change ReSearch," or DISCCRS (pronounced "Discourse"), began in 2003 and is a collaborative effort between scholars at the UO and Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash. Whitman College also received continued NSF funding of $627,511 for its part of the project.
"Our program connects graduates from the entire spectrum of natural science and social science disciplines relevant to understanding climate change, its impacts and potential solutions," said Ronald B. Mitchell, a UO professor of political science. "The goal is to broaden people's perspectives and establish a collegial peer network among natural and social scientists that can help society both better understand and respond to climate change in the decades ahead."
Mitchell joined the program after serving as a mentor at the first symposium -- organized by Whitman Senior Scientist C. Susan Weiler -- in March 2003 in Puerto Rico. Mitchell currently is collaborating with Paul H. Yancey, a biologist at Whitman College, to bridge the natural-science/social-science divide.
The program's centerpiece involves symposia for young researchers selected from large pools of applicants. The first of the four upcoming symposia supported by the new funding will be DISCCRS V in the Tonto National Forest in Mesa, Ariz., in March 2010. Previous symposia, Mitchell said, have created a community of more than 140 scholars who are now dedicated to ensuring that scientific research helps inform political, social and economic decisions about climate change. DISCCRS V has 34 slots for 175 applicants.
During each week-long symposium, participants present their research in oral sessions and as posters, allowing them to fine-tune their interdisciplinary communication and team-building skills, practice communicating with the media and policymakers and to discuss emerging research, societal and professional issues. Participants also meet one-on-one with top scientists in the field, who serve as mentors. Mentors at the March 2010 symposia will include Jonathan Overpeck of the University of Arizona and David Randall of Colorado State University; both have been coordinating lead authors for the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The DISCCRS program's web site provides an online searchable repository of more than 2,000 doctoral dissertation abstracts related to climate change and its impacts and a weekly electronic newsletter that reaches a global audience of early career climate scholars.
About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is a world-class teaching and research institution and Oregon's flagship public university. The UO is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization made up of the 62 leading public and private research institutions in the United States and Canada. The University of Oregon is one of only two AAU members in the Pacific Northwest.
About Whitman College
Whitman College is a small, selective and nationally recognized residential liberal arts college located in Southeastern Washington. With an enrollment of 1,450 men and women and a 9:1 student-faculty ratio, Whitman prides itself on providing a rigorous and supported academic program. Whitman ranks 36th in the nation in the U.S.News & World Report's Best Colleges.