Embracing Brown’s culture of collaboration, IBES drives urgent, durable, and equitable solutions at local to global scales. IBES administers the Environmental Science and Studies concentration and houses a number of research centers and initiatives.

Areas of Focus

Ecosystems Change
IBES researchers use remote sensing, advanced imaging, and DNA metabarcoding to study the impacts of climate change on ecosystems such as tropical forests and coral reefs. The focus is on species responses, carbon dynamics, and long-term ecological shifts driven by human activity.

Climate and Health
Using satellite data, computational analysis, and epigenomics, IBES researchers study the impacts of climate change, air pollution, and other environmental factors on human health and the spread of infectious diseases.

Climate Policy and Communications
IBES researchers analyze media coverage of climate change, identifying misinformation on energy policy and exploring local environmental history to better understand the intersection of policy, public perception, and environmental impact.

Sustainable Energy Systems
IBES researchers who focus on energy and climate are exploring decarbonization pathways, advancing renewable energy systems, and developing innovative resources, including offshore wind and carbon reservoirs, to support at-risk populations and address equity injustice.

Climate Resilience and Adaptation
IBES researchers study the changing Arctic, weather-related population shifts, sustainable urban agriculture, and the socio-environmental impacts of industrial agriculture worldwide.

IBES Researchers

Kim Cobb
Professor of Environment and Society, and of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences
kim_cobb@brown.edu 
Kim Cobb is the Lawrence and Barbara Margolis Director of IBES. Her research focuses on climate change trends and extremes, coral reefs, and coastal climate resilience. She uses observations of past and present climate to advance our understanding of future climate change impacts, often through the lens of community science and/or community-engaged research.

Rachel Baker
John and Elizabeth Irving Family Assistant Professor of Climate Health, Assistant Professor of Environment and Society & Epidemiology
rachel_e_baker@brown.edu
Rachel Baker uses a combination of statistical inference and mechanistic disease modeling to study the implications of climate change for human health, in particular, infectious disease. 

Bathsheba Demuth
Dean’s Associate Professor of History and of Environment and Society, Faculty Director of Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative
bathsheba_demuth@brown.edu
Bathsheba Demuth is an environmental historian who specializes in the lands and seas of the Russian and North American Arctic. She has lived in and studied Arctic communities across Eurasia and North America. Her work focuses on how the histories of people, ideas, places, and nonhuman species intersect. 

Scott Frickel
Professor of Sociology and IBES Director of Research
scott_frickel@brown.edu
Scott Frickel studies interactions between natural and social systems. He is developing new approaches for identifying and measuring socio-environmental change, as well as theories to explain the patterns. He also studies inequality in science and technology and chemical residues as cultural, material, and political objects.

Elizabeth Fussell
Professor of Population Studies and Environment and Society (Research)
elizabeth_fussell@brown.edu
Elizabeth Fussell is a sociologist and demographer whose research focuses on environmental drivers of migration and social inequalities in migration, health, and other post-disaster outcomes. In particular, she studies the effects of hurricanes and other shocks on migration and internal migration systems in the United States.

Meredith Hastings 
George Ide Chase Professor of Physical Sciences, Professor of Environment and Society and of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences
meredith_hastings@brown.edu
Meredith Hastings studies the impacts of humans on the composition of the atmosphere, biosphere, and climate. In addition to conducting novel isotopic measurement and modeling studies in the present environment, through interpretation of ice core measurements, she characterizes how the environment has changed through time.

Daniel Ibarra 
Manning Assistant Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, of Environment and Society, and of Engineering (overlap with ISE)
daniel_ibarra@brown.edu
Daniel Ibarra is a biogeochemist and climate scientist working on the water and carbon cycles. He studies modern rivers and catchments, as well as the terrestrial geologic record (lakes, soils, and caves), to understand Earth system processes that link the biosphere, atmosphere, and lithosphere. The goal is to better understand how Earth’s water and carbon cycles respond to climate drivers, including ongoing anthropogenic climate change. He is also working on the characterization and quantification of lithium deposits in lacustrine basins and enhanced weathering strategies for carbon dioxide removal.

Allan Just
Nazareth-Ferguson Family University Associate Professor of Public Health, Associate Professor of Environment and Society
allan_just@brown.edu
Allan Just’s areas of research include children's environmental health, remote sensing and air pollution modeling with satellite data, climate and health epidemiology, and epigenomics. He investigates how better estimates of the quality of the air we breathe and the temperature in our neighborhoods reveal previously underestimated exposure disparities and health impacts. 

Tyler Kartzinel
Associate Professor of Environment and Society, Associate Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology
tyler_kartzinel@brown.edu
Tyler Kartzinel is a conservation biologist. His research combines ecological field experiments and surveys with molecular laboratory approaches, to better understand where species live, whom they interact with, and what conservation challenges they face. The goal is to identify policy-relevant solutions for the protection of biodiversity and the environment.

James Kellner
Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology and of Environment and Society and IBES Director of Early Career Development and Training
james_r_kellner@brown.edu
James Kellner’s research focuses on two problems: (1) quantifying how populations and ecosystems are responding to variation in the environment across large spatial gradients, and (2) reducing or eliminating biological sources of uncertainty in the global carbon cycle. He uses remote sensing technologies to explore questions at scales of space, time, and biological organization that are beyond the grasp of existing tools.

Dawn King
Senior Lecturer in Environment and Society and IBES Director of Undergraduate Studies
dawn_king@brown.edu
Dawn King’s research focuses on urban agriculture and local food systems, local food policy and politics, US energy policy and politics, and climate change and agriculture. She is investigating policy solutions to reduce and store greenhouse gasses through sustainable agriculture, with an emphasis on justly transitioning to a carbon-neutral society. 

Brian Lander
Associate Professor of History and of Environment and Society
brian_lander@brown.edu
Brian Lander studies the human impact on the biosphere. In China, he uses textual, archaeological, and paleoecological sources to study the long-term transformation of the natural ecosystems of the Yellow and Yangzi River Valleys into human ecosystems, including farms, tree plantations, and fish ponds. 

Myles Lennon
Dean's Assistant Professor of Environment and Society and Anthropology
myles_lennon@brown.edu
Myles Lennon, an environmental anthropologist and former sustainable energy policy practitioner, investigates how human organizations and different cultural configurations can work better with the environment. He has looked specifically at how young land stewards of color are navigating settler colonialism in the United States. He has also explored how climate-mitigation infrastructures simultaneously reinforce and upend entrenched power structures across race and class divisions in New York City.

Amanda Lynch 
Sloan And George Lindeman Jr. Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies, Professor of Environment and Society and Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences
Amanda_Lynch@brown.edu
Amanda Lunch was the founding director of IBES. Her research focuses on the intersection of atmospheric science and environmental governance, with particular emphasis on the Arctic as a place that expresses convergences of rapid change in natural and human systems. In 1993, she developed the first Arctic regional climate system model. 

Aparajita Majumdar 
Assistant Professor of History and Environment and Society
aparajita_majumdar@brown.edu
Aparajita Majumdar is an environmental historian whose research focuses on failed commodity crops, multispecies ethnography, climate change, colonial and Indigenous notions of borderlands, and heritage in South Asia. She also studies the regenerative human-plant relations of Indigenous communities.

Stephen Porder 
Acacia Professor of Ecology, Evolutionary and Organismal Biology and Environment and Society and Associate Provost For Sustainability
stephen_porder@brown.edu
Stephen Porder’s research focuses on nutrient and carbon cycling in tropical rainforests, the implications (both biophysical and societal) of industrial agriculture in the tropics, and the potential for large-scale tropical forest restoration. He also works at the intersection of science and institutional solutions to climate change. He is the founder and science lead on the radio show/podcast Possibly, which explores everyday issues related to sustainability.

J. Timmons Roberts 
Ittleson Professor of Environmental Studies, Professor of Environment and Society and Sociology
J_Timmons_Roberts@brown.edu
J. Timmons Roberts' research focuses on the politics of climate change, in particular, the failure to address climate change in the United States. His Climate and Development Lab at Brown partners with research institutions, NGOs, and organizations at the local, national, and international levels globally. He is a leader in Rhode Island's efforts to plan for climate change. 

Seda Şalap-Ayça
Assistant Professor of the Practice of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences
seda_salapayca@brown.edu
Salap-Ayca is a GIScientist whose research focuses on solving spatial decision-making problems and understanding the role of uncertainty in spatial models, particularly for human-environment dynamics.

Dov Sax
Professor of Environment and Society and of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology
dov_sax@brown.edu
Dov Sax's research focuses on the impact of species invasions, species extinction dynamics, species responses to climate change, and climate adaptation strategies that can conserve natural resources. He is currently focused on conservation strategies that can safeguard thousands of plant species that are likely to be at risk of extinction from climate change in the United States. 

Mindi Schneider
Lecturer in Environment and Society
mindi_schneider@brown.edu
Mindi Schneider is a development sociologist who specializes in the political economy of development, environmental sociology and political ecology, and international agriculture and rural development. She is the founder of the Global Environmental Justice Working Group, a collective of researchers, educators, students, activists, and community members concerned with how people mobilize against systems of domination that produce environmental injustices.

Laurence C. Smith
John Atwater and Diana Nelson University Professor of Environmental Studies
laurence_smith@brown.edu
Laurence C. Smith studies how climate change is altering the Arctic environment. In his research on the evolution of water and ice in the far north, he combines field expeditions with satellite and airborne remote sensing technology, to study changing river flows, melting ice sheets and glaciers, and thawing permafrost.

Kurt Teichert
Senior Lecturer in Environment and Society
kurt_teichert@brown.edu
Kurt Teichert came to Brown in 1992 to manage an environmental education and advocacy initiative that links student research and education efforts with university operations to implement programs that reduce negative environmental impacts. He teaches courses and advises students on sustainable design, environmental stewardship, urban infrastructure, and transportation technology and policy. 

Mark Tracy
Assistant Professor of the Practice of Environment and Society
mark_tracy1@brown.edu
Mark Tracy is Brown’s first faculty member in the area of sustainable finance and investing. At IBES, he is helping to foster the understanding of finance and its integration into equitable climate solutions. He will be convening events featuring leaders in sustainable finance and climate-related entrepreneurship. He is also collaborating with Brown’s Center for Career Exploration to bring more internships and full-time opportunities to students looking to make an environmental impact.

Leah VanWey
Professor of Environment and Society and Sociology, Dean of the School of Professional Studies
leah_vanwey@brown.edu
Leah VanWey is a social demographer and environmental social scientist who studies the relationships between economic development and environmental change. Her current research focuses on household responses to a payment-for-reforestation program in the Atlantic Forest in Brazil, as well as the program’s social and environmental impacts.

Rachel Wetts
Acacia Assistant Professor of Environment and Society and Sociology 
rachel_wetts@brown.edu
Rachel Wetts studies how cultural and social psychological processes interact with systems of power and privilege to shape American politics. She has looked at how American organizations frame the issue of climate change, and how cultural and organizational processes affect which conceptions of climate change become dominant in mainstream media.

IBES Research Centers and Initiatives

Equitable Climate Futures
Equitable Climate Futures is an initiative that is building Brown’s capacity for climate research, with a strong focus on under-resourced and historically marginalized groups.

Breathe Providence
Breathe Providence approaches air quality questions from multiple disciplines and perspectives, including atmospheric science, public health, and urban studies.

Climate Social Science Network (CSSN)
CSSN facilitates an international network of climate scholars, hosts events, and provides grants to scholars to promote research focused on understanding political conflict over climate change. 

Community-Driven Coastal Climate Research and Solutions (3CRS)
3CRS works to co-develop the processes, expert networks, data streams, local relationships, and knowledge needed to expand the capacity of working waterfront communities to become more climate resilient.

IBES University Partners

School of Public Health 
The mission of Brown’s School of Public Health is to improve the health of all populations, especially those most vulnerable, by producing world-class public health scholarship, forging strong community partnerships, and educating the next generation of diverse public health leaders.

School of Engineering
The School of Engineering is organized without the traditional departments or boundaries found at most schools; its model is focused on making unique connections between the various engineering disciplines. Engineers of all types team together with non-engineers to tackle some of the biggest problems facing engineering and science today. 

Swearer Center
The Swearer Center is a community of scholars, students, practitioners, and community members who work together to build on community strengths and address community challenges. The center’s work is intended to catalyze student learning and commitment to lifelong civic engagement and responsibility, in order to advance social justice. 

The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs
The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs seeks to promote a just and peaceful world through research, teaching, and public engagement.