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EPA Awards Columbia University and Cornell University Climate Change Grants; Columbia and Cornell Universities to Receive a Combined $1.5 Million

Release Date: 09/18/2012
Contact Information: John Martin, (212) 637-3662, [email protected]

(New York, N.Y.) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded Columbia University and Cornell University almost $750,000 each to study the relationship between air pollution, weather and climate change. The grants are two of 14 that the EPA awarded to universities across the nation to fund research on technologies that can help the public and government agencies predict and prepare for the effects that extreme weather triggered by climate change can have on the nation’s air and water quality.

“By gaining a better understanding of how extreme weather impacts our natural resources, we can allow communities to be in a better position to respond to the effects of climate change,” said EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck. “The research Columbia and Cornell are performing in this area will help ensure better prepared communities.”

The project at Columbia University will use state-of-the-art statistical techniques to find correlations between weather and extremes in ozone and particulate air pollution levels. Projections made from these techniques will be presented in ways that can be used by air quality managers in their long-term planning.

The project at Cornell University will study the use a statistical technique called an extreme value theory, which is used to assess the probability of events that are more extreme than those previously observed, to examine air pollution in the U.S. to determine how extremes in weather and air pollution are related. The Cornell researchers will investigate both present-day and projected future climate scenarios.

For more information on these EPA research grants, visit: https://www.epa.gov/ncer/xevents/.

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