News For You: UCLA Institute of the Environment

UCLA Institute of the Environment
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IoE generates knowledge and provides solutions for regional and global environmental problems and educates the next generation of professional leadership committed to the health of our planet.

Through its local, national, and international programs, the IoE employs innovative, cross-disciplinary approaches to address critical environmental challenges - including those related to climate change, water quality, air pollution, biodiversity, and sustainability - with the goal of achieving stable human coexistence with the natural systems on which society depends.

IoE Resources

Southern California Environmental Report Card
~ UCLA faculty analyzes current environmental issues
Spring 2010: Biodiesel Fuels
Winter 2010: Promoting Green Innovation

Clean Tech LA Video Series
CleanTech Los Angeles (CTLA) is a multi-institutional collaboration between the City of Los Angeles, the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles, UCLA, USC, Caltech, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Central City Association, Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, Los Angeles Business Council (LABC) and the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) to establish Los Angeles as the global leader in research, commercialization, and deployment of clean technologies.

Climate Change Portal
entry point to the vast array of experts, research, and activities that UCLA is engaged in.

IoE Newsletter: Spring 2010
The Hot Spot
Programming for the Planet
Natural Invention

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Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy

A federal effort to lead 'green' technology

An energy research agency applies the same theory that led to the invention of the Internet: that government funding churns out radical innovations. Director Arun Majumdar talks about the challenges. LA Times: March 1, 2010 by Jim Tankersley

Reporting from Washington - Half a century ago, after the Soviet Union jolted Americans by sending Sputnik into orbit, the Defense Department launched a little-noticed program designed to help the United States leapfrog the frontiers of technology by doling out millions of dollars for research on radically new ideas.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency -- DARPA in Pentagonese -- backed projects that led to such military advances as the light, rapid-fire M-16 rifle and Stealth warplanes that were invisible to radar. The efforts also led to revolutionary civilian technology, such as the Internet.

Now, the same approach is being tried for energy and "green" technology. Though critics say innovation is best achieved by private-sector entrepreneurs, the Obama administration is betting an initial $400 million in government seed money on such future possibilities as giant batteries filled with molten metal and exotic materials that spin sunlight and water into methane.

Arun Majumdar, a former UC Berkeley professor and national lab assistant director who worked under DARPA funding for a decade, is the director of ARPA-E -- the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy created under the Energy Department -- which will showcase its program at a meeting in Washington on Monday. READ MORE !