Building an interdisciplinary and interagency collaboration between DOE BER and theUniversity of Virginia

Building an interdisciplinary and interagency collaboration between DOE BER and the University of Virginia

Xi Yang (Principal Investigator)

Lawrence Band (Co-Investigator)

Stephan De Wekker (Co-Investigator)

Howard Epstein (Co-Investigator)

Kevin Grise (Co-Investigator)

Ajay B. Limaye (Co-Investigator)

Stephen Macko (Co-Investigator)

Todd Scanlon (Co-Investigator)

Kathleen Schiro (Co-Investigator)

Lauren M. Simkins (Co-Investigator)

The Department of Energy (DOE) program in Biological and Environmental Research (BER) has supported transformative and innovative research in atmospheric sciences, hydrology,

hydrology

The science that deals with water, its properties, circulation, or distribution on Earth's surface, and in the atmosphere through evapotranspiration.

Source: NASA earth observatory Source

geosciences, and ecology.

ecology

The interrelationships between living organisms and their environments.

Source: NASA earth observatory Source

The Department of Environment Sciences at the University of Virginia (UVA) has established itself as one of the leaders in the abovementioned subdisciplines and the interdisciplinary research enabled by the synergies among its sub-disciplines within the department. UVA President Jim Ryan has announced that environmental resilience is one of the top supported areas at the university. While there is great potential for interdisciplinary and interagency collaborations between UVA and various DOE laboratories and programs, no formal partnership has been established, nor has the Department of Environmental Sciences received DOE funding in the past few years. The interdisciplinary team within the Department of Environmental Sciences at UVA consists of ecologists, atmospheric scientists, geoscientists, and hydrologists. We propose to develop partnerships with existing DOE laboratories and programs and build capabilities to respond to future EESSD calls. The proposed activities include week-long faculty visits to various national laboratories, trips to DOE annual meetings to interact with program managers, and collaboration with DOE programs through modeling, laboratory, and field research projects. The strong interdisciplinary research of the Department of Environmental Sciences allows us to uniquely collaborate with many DOE laboratories focused on Earth-system and planetary research. We will also invite program managers and scientists from DOE laboratories and projects to a workshop at UVA that provides interdisciplinary synergies between UVA and DOE laboratories and allows for student engagement with DOE personnel.