Spotlight on Sustainability and the Environment

Innovation and Conservation

Sustainability represents a way of thinking, living, and acting, to ensure that our choices do not impact future generations’ ability to enjoy a high quality of life. This means being good stewards of the earth, good citizens in local and world communities, and sharing resources with human and natural populations. Today we face serious environmental challenges. How will climate change affect the world’s biodiversity? Where will our food, water and energy come from? How should we limit industrial growth at regional and global levels? Scientists at Cal are working to find sustainable solutions!

Because of the urgency with which we need these solutions, scientists, policymakers, and engineers are all working together. Computer scientists and atmospheric scientists have joined forces, building models to help us predict the likely outcomes of climate change. Ecologists and policy experts are teaming up to conserve biodiversity. Engineers and microbial biologists are working together to find new energy sources and design more energy-efficient technologies. And that’s just for starters.

Meet Cal Scientists

What are these Cal scientists doing about sustainability and the environment? How does their science relate to our everyday lives? Just click on each picture to find out!

Cyrus Wadia Postdoctoral Researcher UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Bryce Sadtler Graduate Student The Alivisatos Group UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Elif Ertekin Postdoctoral Researcher Computational Nanoscience Group Berkeley Nanosciences and Nanoengineering Institute Chris Somerville Professor, Dept. of Plant and Microbial Biology Director, Energy Biosciences Institute
Jeffrey Grossman Group Leader, Computational Nanoscience Group Executive Director, Center of Integrated Nanomechanical Systems John Arnold Professor Dept. of Chemistry