December 2009

Now in its third year of funding, the Grand Challenges Initiative, administered by PEI in collaboration with the Woodrow Wilson School and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, has created a diverse research and scholarship endeavor. Below are a few recent highlights from each of the Grand Challenges:

PEI and the Oil, Energy and the Middle East Initiative Collaborate to Solidify Princeton’s Role as World Leader in this Field

Carbon Mitigation Initiative

Craig Arnold, associate professor of MAE, becomes acting co-director of CMI while Rob Socolow is on sabbatical during 2009–2010.

CMI announces new members of the CMI Advisory Council: Dallas Burtraw, Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future; Michael A. Levi, David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment, Council on Foreign Relations.

"Is Copenhagen the watershed or just another missed opportunity — there’s no way to tell yet," said Michael Oppenheimer, a Princeton University climate scientist who attended the talks. 

An additional 2 degrees of global warming could commit the planet to 6 to 9 meters (20 to 30 feet) of long-term sea level rise

A new analysis of the geological record of the Earth's sea level, carried out by scientists at Princeton and Harvard universities and published in the Dec. 16 issue of Nature, employs a novel statistical approach that reveals the planet's polar ice sheets are vulnerable to large-scale melting even under moderate global warming scenarios. Such melting would lead to a large and relatively rapid rise in global sea level.