From the 2021-2026 PCC Strategic Plan:

Origin

The UW Program on Climate Change (PCC) was founded by its first director, Professor James Murray (Oceanography), in the 2001-2002 academic year. PCC’s initial funding came from University Initiative Funds awarded from a competitive, university-wide, solicited proposal. The overarching goals of the newly formed PCC were to create and support an interdisciplinary research and teaching program at the UW that integrates all climate change activities on campus, and to build community among UW faculty and students interested in climate change. This initial funding from the provost was used to build community through annual events such as the Summer Institute, now held at Friday Harbor Labs in mid-September, and the Winter Welcome, an evening event designed to bring people together to welcome new climate faculty, postdocs and staff to the UW climate community. This initial funding was also used to hire new faculty doing interdisciplinary climate research in areas that were identified as lacking in expertise at the UW. The current director, Becky Alexander (ATM S), was one of these new hires. Existing faculty created a set of interdisciplinary graduate-level courses that were each co-taught by two faculty from three core PCC departments: Atmospheric Sciences (ATM S), Earth and Space Sciences (ESS), and Oceanography (OCEAN). New hires updated these courses. The PCC’s primary focus has always been on fundamental climate science on the global scale, distinct from other climate groups on campus such as the Climate Impacts Group (CIG) which is focused on impacts on the local scale. In 2006, PCC funding was switched from the university to what was then the College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences (COFS) and later in 2010 to the College of the Environment after its founding. Although PCC’s reach extends beyond the College of the Environment, the college has been its sole source of funding since the founding of the college.

History

An Interdisciplinary Community

“We have great breadth in climate science at UW, but one disadvantage is that we are so spread out across campus that it’s difficult to get to even know what research is going on outside of your immediate unit. This is a particular challenge for new students, postdocs, and faculty members. The PCC is the glue that holds the climate science community together on campus and, in my view, is a large part of what makes our impact greater than the sum of our parts.“     –UW Faculty Member

Over the last 20 years, PCC has evolved beyond its three “core” departments of ATM S, ESS, and OCEAN to include all units within the College of the Environment in addition to faculty and students in the Evans School of Public Policy, the Applied Physics Lab, Global Health, CICOES, NOAA PMEL, Jackson School, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Biology. PCC recently became an affiliate of EarthLab and also joined forces with the UW Center for Health and the Global Environment (CHanGE) to offer a seminar on the intersection of climate change and human health, which featured 20 UW faculty speakers. UW faculty remain an active and integral part of the PCC, and work collaboratively across units to teach PCC courses and seminars, run and organize our annual Summer Institute, and lead new initiatives such as our recently accepted proposal for a Walker Ames Lecture featuring UW Oceanography alumna Fiamma Straneo of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. These activities are examples of PCC’s long history of success in bringing together researchers from across campus. PCC’s core graduate-level courses are currently taught by faculty in ATM S, OCEAN, and ESS, although they are no longer co-taught. The 2020 Summer Institute was run by PCC board members from four different units (NOAA PMEL, ATM S, Global Health, and Civil and Environmental Engineering) and one PCC graduate-student alumna (formerly UW ATM S, now at Cornell University). The Walker-Ames Lecture nomination was led by PCC board members in ESS, OCEAN, and the Evans School including a graduate student representative (GSR). These types of interactions have spurred interdisciplinary research involving multiple PIs and graduate students among various units across campus.

Postdoctoral Fellowships

From 2004 – 2010, PCC funded 6 postdoctoral fellows in ATM S, OCEAN, JISAO (now CIOCES) (see Appendix IV). These postdoctoral fellowships facilitated interdisciplinary research across ATM S, ESS, and OCEAN through cross-unit faculty advising. Through mentoring graduate students, PCC postdocs contributed to interdisciplinary graduate education. The PCC Postdoctoral Fellowship also brought international visibility to climate science research at the UW and was considered a prestigious award. 

Graduate Education

Graduate students are an integral part of PCC and have been the main focus of PCC’s educational efforts. PCC funds four 9-month graduate student fellowships, three as incentives to incoming first year students in what have traditionally been PCC’s core units (ATM S, ESS, OCEAN), and one as an incentive for a current student to broaden their research. These fellowships provide students and their faculty advisors the flexibility to explore interdisciplinary connections and to collaborate more broadly than when their funding comes solely from grants awarded to PIs. PCC’s interdisciplinary graduate level courses are an integral part of PCC’s Graduate Certificate in Climate Science (GCeCS), which also requires a capstone project focused on communicating climate science to a general audience. Since the founding of GCeCS in 2007, certificates have been awarded to 59 graduate students from 10 different units: Oceanography, SMEA, ESS, CEE, Biology, ATM S, DEOHS, Philosophy, Evans School and Education. Many capstone projects include partnerships with groups outside the UW, which has extended PCC’s influence. Recent capstone projects have included partnerships with local government agencies such as the WA Department of Natural Resources, the WA Department of Fish and Wildlife, King County Labor Council, King County Libraries, nonprofits such as Cascadia Climate Action, Vulcan, and the Gates Foundation, and formal and informal education programs such as K-12 classrooms and local museums. Activities led and initiated by PCC graduate students have increased substantially over the last 20 years, and continue to expand today. In 2017 the graduate students organized a leadership body, the PCC Graduate Student Steering Committee (PGraSC). PGraSC has 24 members representing units from across the college and beyond and runs and organizes many activities including PCC’s strong local outreach program, the annual, international Graduate Climate Conference started by UW PCC graduate students and now co-run by students at MIT, the Spring Symposium featuring talks by PCC graduate students and postdocs, community events such as the Schooner Series, and the new Actionable Community-Oriented Research eNgagement (ACORN) program which provides opportunities for collaboration between community leaders and graduate students and postdocs across the PCC. Through the capstone projects and ACORN, PCC’s education activities, particularly those related to climate communication, are intimately connected to our outreach program and our connection to the local community.

Undergraduate Education

PCC contributes to undergraduate education primarily through offering a minor in climate science. The Climate Science Minor, approved in 2010, serves undergraduates across the university by providing a structured pathway for learning about the climate system from multiple departments. Twenty students have completed the minor in the last 9 years; 6 of those were completed this year (2020-2021). These students represent 9 different majors, 6 of which are outside the College of the Environment (Biology, Physics, Biochemistry, Statistics, Engineering, Finance).

Community Engagement

In addition to being a hub for climate researchers across the UW campus, PCC is also an outward facing hub for communicating climate science to the broader community beyond UW. In addition to our website, newsletters and internal and external listservs, we also provide local resources for the general public including fielding outreach requests and providing a connection between outside interests and internal expertise (e.g., KUOW and other reporters).

A NASA Global Climate Change Education Award in 2009 enabled the PCC to build a strong connection with the K-12 educator community resulting in collaborative curriculum development (>11 GCeCS capstone projects), a new dual-enrollment climate change course for the high school (UWHS ATM S 211, now offered as UWHS ATM S 111), and annual teacher-scientist workshops around teaching new curriculum and new ideas. Much of the curriculum is now available as an open access UW pressbook “Climate for the Classroom”, and scientists continue to collaborate with the PCC to create opportunities for teachers to build their capacity to teach climate science.

The PCC outreach framework for connecting climate scientists to learners and the general public form the basis for development of substantial broader impact programs on NSF and other proposals. Since 2011, at least two proposals submitted each year by faculty and scientists from APL, CEE, Biology, Oceanography, and the Evans School include projects built on the established PCC curated teacher workshops, GCeCS capstone communication projects, or other outreach programming. These frameworks are particularly valuable for young scientists submitting NSF CAREER grants which ask for more substantial broader impacts.