Background
Established in 1994, the Institute for the Study of Planet Earth (ISPE) has been a highly successful venture at The University of Arizona. Since its inception, ISPE has collaborated with more than 130 faculty and scores of students from 55 academic departments across campus to build the research and educational programs needed to understand environmental variability and change. ISPE also works to forge new links to partners in other universities, the private sector, government agencies, and the public to help people understand how their environment varies and how to use that knowledge to plan for the future.
Since 1994, sponsored funding of ISPE-related activities has tripled to nearly $20 million per year, with strong support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and a host of smaller federal, state, and corporate sources. The number of available awards, grants, and fellowships to faculty and graduate students for ISPE-related scholarly work also has increased, along with the average amount of each award.
ISPE faculty has been involved in a wide range of successful small research projects, as well as some of the largest and most distinguished interdisciplinary projects in the country. These include the premier environmental science-oriented NSF Science and Technology Center for Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas (SAHRA) and Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS), the largest and best known of NOAA's Regional Integrated Science and Assessment projects.
The wealth of disciplinary and interdisciplinary faculty expertise makes the UA one of the most fertile campuses in the country for the study of regional to global environmental variability and change.