School Notes: School of the Environment
November/December 2018

Energy scholar appointed assistant professor

Narasimha Rao, whose research examines the relationship between energy systems, climate change, and human society, has been appointed assistant professor of energy systems analysis at F&ES. Rao, who is currently a research scholar and project leader at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, will come to Yale in January 2019. At IIASA, Rao leads the institute’s innovative Decent Living Energy project, which has helped quantify—and map—the energy needs and climate change impacts of eradicating poverty and providing “decent” living standards for all humans. “During his career, Narasimha has examined the complexity of global energy systems across many dimensions,” said F&ES dean Indy Burke. “Through his work he has sought to better understand not just the economic and environmental implications of energy policy but also the social costs—and how policies can be used to improve the living standards for more people worldwide.”

New Haven–based partnership receives national award

A community partnership including the Yale-based Urban Resources Initiative that has helped the city of New Haven tackle the challenge of storm water runoff this summer received a prestigious award from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. The 2018 Roy Family Award for Environmental Partnership was awarded to the Advancing Green Infrastructure Program, a public-private partnership, which has built hundreds of “bioswales” across the city to reduce the pollution and flooding impacts of storm water runoff. The project was recognized for achieving an “inclusive, replicable approach to dealing with the negative impacts of more frequent and intense rainfall events due to climate change.” The Urban Resources Initiative, a nonprofit housed at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, has been actively engaged in community forestry activities throughout New Haven since 1991.