UC is cementing its role as a national leader in global warming research with new initiatives and discoveries.

The Department of Energy has awarded a $125 million grant to establish the Joint BioEnergy Institute in Berkeley. UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore labs will partner with Sandia and Stanford University to develop better technologies for producing biofuels such as ethanol.

The institute is one of three BioEnergy Research Centers the DOE has funded. The others are in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Madison, Wis.

“The selection of JBEI is a major vote of confidence in the Bay Area’s growing leadership in the national effort to develop new and cleaner sources of renewable energy,” said UC Berkeley Professor Jay Keesling at the June 26 announcement of the DOE award. Keesling also is director of Lawrence Berkeley lab’s physical biosciences division and is the center’s chief executive officer.

Earlier this year, UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley lab and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign were selected to investigate biofuels and new technologies for oil recovery. British oil corporation BP awarded $500 million over 10 years to fund the Energy Biosciences Institute.

While UC researchers explore ways to produce cost-effective alternatives to fossil fuels, others are making new discoveries about the far-reaching effects of global climate change. Researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and other UC San Diego departments published a study on the impact floating icebergs have on marine life and the implications for global warming research. The article is published in the June 21issue of Science Express, an online publication of the journal Science that showcases articles before they hit the print edition.

At the July meeting of the UC Board of Regents, researchers from Scripps gave a briefing on the world-class research going on at the facility.

Scripps was the longtime home of Professor Charles Keeling, who was the first to confirm the rise of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere through extremely precise measurements that produced a data set known widely today as the "Keeling Curve."

Today Scripps researchers are still performing some of the world’s most advanced research on the impacts of global warming on such things as spring snowpacks, wildfires and ocean levels. The institution works closely with state agencies preparing California for the effects of continued climate change.

“We’re on the job for the State of California,” said Tony Haymet, director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “We do lead the world in the basic science of climate change, and we’re working hard for the State of California to prepare for the changes upon us.”

To read more about the global warming research around the UC, visit http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/everyday/globalwarming/welcome.html

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