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Clark’s century of local and global research

The School of Climate, Environment, and Society and its academic programs build on Clark University’s legacy of leadership in climate and global change, drawing on over a century of pioneering work in geography, development studies, urban studies, natural resources governance, economics, earth system science, geospatial analytics, and environmental science.

Our legacy

2025
2025
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First LEED Gold building at 20

First LEED Gold building at 20

Clark marks 20 years since opening the Cathy ’83 and Marc ’81 Lasry Center for Bioscience, the first building in Worcester to receive nationally recognized Gold Certification from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System. The 50,000-square-foot building  houses laboratories, conference rooms, lounge spaces, faculty offices, and equipment for research and teaching in biology, biochemistry, molecular biology, and environmental science.

2025
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100 years of Economic Geography

Jim Murphy and staff member

Economic Geography, the internationally peer-reviewed journal launched by Clark in 1925, celebrates its 100th year, led by Geography Professor and Editor-in-Chief Jim Murphy. The journal continues to delve into emerging global economic issues, including those related to climate change.

2024
2024
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EPIC lab and greenhouse opens

Researcher working with plants in the EPIC lab

The Experimental Plant Investigation Center (called the EPIC lab for short), a climate-controlled, energy-efficient, up-to-date laboratory and greenhouse for plant and insect behavior research — including studies related to the effects of climate and global change on organisms and ecosystems — opens in the Cathy ’83 and Marc ’81 Lasry Center for Bioscience. The EPIC lab includes the research labs of biology professors Chandra Jack and Kaitlyn Mathis.

2024
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The School of Climate, Environment, and Society

School of Climate, Environment, and Society lockup

A transformative $10 million gift by former trustee Vickie Riccardo and daughters Jocelyn and Alyssa Spencer ’17 enabled establishment of the School of Climate, Environment, and Society. The gift endowed the school’s inaugural D.J.A. Spencer deanship.

2023
2023
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5th National Climate Assessment

Painting of people in Pacific islands in climate change disaster

The U.S. government releases the Fifth National Climate Assessment, including a chapter led by Geography Professor Abby Frazier detailing the impacts of climate and global change on Hawai‘i and Pacific Islands.

2023
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Launching Sustainability & Social Justice

Laurie Ross

Clark launches the Department of Sustainability and Social Justice, building upon decades of transformative, community-engaged work by faculty and students addressing local and global development and environmental issues.

2023
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Arctic Report Card leader

Arctic Report Card leader

Internationally recognized polar scientist Karen Frey, a Clark geography professor, marks her 12th year as the lead author of an entry for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Arctic Report Card.

2022
2022
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Addressing Mexico’s Water Crisis

Clark and UNAM researchers

Led by Professor Tim Downs, Clark researchers from the Department of Sustainability & Social Justice, Graduate School of Geography, and Becker School of Design & Technology embark on a three-year, NSF-funded project in Central Mexico to work with local and federal governments, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and community stakeholders on how to alter their fate under climate change.

2022
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A new Center for Geospatial Analytics

Earth with rising sun

Clark hires geographer Hamed Alemohammad to head the new Center for Geospatial Analytics, building on the legacy of the University’s research and development in GIS. The center will play an entrepreneurial role in strengthening connections with industry and stakeholders outside Clark, according to Alemohammad .

2021
2021
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Marking 100 years of environmental research

Marking 100 years of environmental research

Clark’s Graduate School of Geography marks the 100th anniversary of its founding and, in turn, 100 years of environmental — and subsequently — climate change research. President Wallace W. Atwood — a geographer himself — launched the school in September 1921. Today, the Graduate School of Geography is top-ranked by the National Research Council, which was established under the National Academy of Sciences.

2018
2018
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Resilience in Puerto Rico

Women in Puerto Rico sorting and checking quality of coffee beans

After devastating hurricanes in Puerto Rico, Sustainability & Social Justice Professor Ramón Borges-Méndez co-founds Fundación Bucarabón, a nonprofit organization supporting women, farmers, and community economic empowerment initiatives in Maricao, a town in mountainous, western part of the island. The foundation’s goal is to “build back better,” ensuring residents can survive — even thrive — in the face of future disasters.

2018

1.5 degrees Celsius

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) releases a groundbreaking report about the urgency of the world’s taking dramatic steps to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. If not, the world could see even more extreme weather, rising sea levels, and diminishing Arctic sea ice.

2016
2016
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Climate Change Teach-In

Climate Change Teach-In

Clark holds its second — and largest yet — Climate Change Teach-In, bringing together the campus for a deep consideration of the challenges to the planet’s health. Activist and author Naomi Klein delivers the opening lecture, followed by more than 50 faculty- and staff-led panels, presentations, and open classes, assisted by a team of student facilitators.

2012
2012
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Advising the EPA

EPA logo

Robert Johnston, director of the George Perkins Marsh Institute and an environmental economist, is appointed to serve on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board, continuing his work in advising and developing models to help the EPA and other federal agencies quantify the economic benefits of environmental protection. He develops methods contributing to how the EPA quantifies water quality benefits for nationwide regulatory impact assessments.

2009
2009

Third World Climate Conference

The World Meteorological Organization convenes the Third World Climate Conference in Geneva to achieve “better climate information for a better future.”

2005
2005

First Global Day of Action

First Global Day of Action

The first Global Day of Action occurs during U.N. climate talks in Montreal. Going forward, the annual event will spark worldwide protests to take action against human-induced climate change, including reducing fossil fuels.

1997
1997

Kyoto Protocol

In Japan, industrially advanced nations agree to the Kyoto Protocol, the first international treaty to mandate the reduction of greenhouse gases.

1995
1995
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‘Regions at Risk’

‘Regions at Risk’

Part of a United Nations University research initiative, the Clark-based Project on Critical Environmental Zones publishes Regions at Risk: Comparisons of Threatened Environments, an international, interdisciplinary report exploring nine regions facing large-scale, human-induced environmental changes. Editors are Jeanne X. Kasperson, research associate professor and research librarian for the George Perkins Marsh Institute, and geography professors Roger E. Kasperson and Billie Lee Turner. “In nearly all these regions, trajectories of change are proceeding to greater endangerment, sometimes rapidly so, while societal efforts to stabilize these trajectories and to avert further environmental deterioration are lagging,” they conclude.

1991
1991
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George Perkins Marsh Institute

George Perkins Marsh Institute

Clark establishes the George Perkins Marsh Institute, emerging out of earlier research clusters around environmental risk and hazards. The institute is named for George Perkins Marsh, who, in the 19th century, spoke of the impact of humans on the environment.

1990
1990

Second Climate Conference

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) holds the Second Climate Conference in Geneva, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) releases its First Assessment Report, warning that human activities are increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases, resulting in additional global warming.

1988
1988
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United Nations University

United Nations University

Clark Geography Professor Roger Kasperson promotes research and international discussions around global environmental change, receiving funding from the United Nations University. He also begins a National Science Foundation-funded examination of “Critical Zones in Global Environmental Change: Comparing Driving Forces, Awareness, and Societal Response.”

1987
1987
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World-changing GIS software

World-changing GIS software

Under the direction of J. Ronald Eastman, Clark Labs debuts IDRISI, an integrated geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing software affordable and accessible to researchers, nonprofit organizations, and students around the world, essentially democratizing a valuable resource. Clark Labs’ GIS and remote sensing software technologies are used by climate scientists worldwide.

1987
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‘The Earth Transformed by Human Action’

‘The Earth Transformed by Human Action’

Organized by Clark geographers Robert Kates and Billie Lee Turner and Harvard’s William C. Clark, an international symposium, “The Earth as Transformed by Human Action,” draws widespread attention from the global scientific community. The symposium will help lay the foundation for the creation of Clark’s George Perkins Marsh Institute, and encourage Clark’s research in earth system science and sustainability science. Three years later, Cambridge University Press will publish The Earth as Transformed by Human Action, co-edited by Turner and Kates. The book, a major stocktaking of the anthropogenic impacts on the planet and its ecosystems over 300 years, is deemed “a landmark study.”

1985
1985
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Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment

Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment

The Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) publishes the “Climate Impact Assessment: Studies of the Interaction of Climate and Society,” co-edited by Clark Geography Professor Robert Kates. The report notes that scientists widely agree “long-term global warming … is underway” and that a “scientific study of climate and society will inform societal response.”

1982
1982
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Sustainable energy

Sustainable energy

To further its sustainability practices, Clark opens the cogeneration plant, one of the first grid-connected such plants in the country. The plant’s engine converts natural gas into steam for heat and electricity for lighting. Waste heat produced when generating electricity is captured and reused, while surplus energy in the form of electricity can be sold to the electrical grid.

1980
1980
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Pioneering land change science

Pioneering land change science

The Graduate School of Geography hires Professor Billie Lee Turner II, who becomes an internationally recognized environmental research scientist and pioneer in the field of land change science. He later is named to the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Association for the Advancement of Science.

1979
1979

First World Climate Conference

In Geneva, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) holds what is now called the First World Climate Conference.

1975
1975

‘Global warming’ emerges

‘Global warming’ emerges

The term “global warming” gains widespread use after publication of an article titled  “Climatic Change: Are We on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?” by U.S. geochemist Wallace Broecker in the journal Science.

1970
1970

First Earth Day

First Earth Day

On April 22, the world — and Clark University — celebrates the first Earth Day, now an annual event that draws attention to environmental issues, most notably climate change. The first event sees pro-environment demonstrations in Washington, New York, and other cities, and litter cleanup throughout the country.

1968
1968
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Increased environmental research

Increased environmental research

Alumnus Roger Kasperson returns to Clark Geography, this time as a faculty member. An academic leader and world-renowned expert in risk assessment and the human dimensions of global change, Kasperson will join Robert Kates in building Clark’s environmental research programs. Kasperson will be appointed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Science Advisory Board; elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, National Academy of Sciences, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and head the Stockholm Environment Institute.

1965
1965

‘Greenhouse effect’ warning

‘Greenhouse effect’ warning

In its “Restoring the Quality of Our Environment” report presented to to President Lyndon B. Johnson, the U.S. President’s Science Advisory Committee raises concerns about the “greenhouse effect.”

1962
1962
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Nobel-laureate-in-the-making

Nobel-laureate-in-the-making

Robert Kates begins his tenure on the geography faculty at Clark, where he lays the groundwork for research in global and climate change. An internationally recognized expert in human ecology, Kates later is appointed executive editor of Environment magazine, and to the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Academia Europaea. He and his fellow members on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will be awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

1939
1939
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Wind Chill Factor

Wind Chill Factor

Clark first enters the arena of polar and climate studies via Paul Siple, who has accompanied Admiral Richard E. Byrd on two expeditions to Antarctica. Siple defends his Clark geography dissertation, “Adaptations of the Explorer to the Climate of Antarctica,” in which he develops the theory of the wind chill factor. He will join Byrd on three more expeditions and earn three Congressional Medals of Honor.