CSUMB receives biggest grant in its history

NASA has awarded $137 million to a team of research institutions – including CSU Monterey Bay – to study climate change and ecosystem processes over a 10-year period.

CSUMB's share will be $32 million, the largest in its history, according to university officials.

The award was given to the Bay Area Environmental Research (BAER) Institute of Sonoma. The institute will collaborate with three universities – CSUMB, the University of California, Davis, and the University of North Dakota – to conduct research on critical areas such as basic climate processes and how they impact global ecosystems. Some of the work will involve satellites and unmanned drones.

CSUMB’s share of the award will support 20 full-time research scientists and five to 10 student researchers each year. Most of the scientists will work at NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field in Mountain View. Collaborations with campus-based faculty members will be developed as part of the research.

Susan Alexander, professor in the Division of Science and Environmental Policy, heads the project for CSUMB. Scientists will study changes in ecosystems, climate and biodiversity, and will develop products to help land managers, agricultural producers and water managers throughout the U.S.

Projects include wildfire and natural disaster monitoring, flood forecasting, crop yield predictions and fog detection. Scientists will apply satellite data to study environmental conditions and ecological processes that affect agriculture, public health and vector borne disease.

Specific areas include daily or near real-time mapping of crop productivity and crop water demand in California; disease vectors and disease transmission risk across the U.S.; and coral reef health in the tropics.

Alexander has already been collaborating with NASA Ames since 1997 researching ecological and watershed systems.

Graduate students in CSUMB's master's program in Coastal and Watershed Science and Policy and advanced undergraduates in the Environmental Science, Technology and Policy program will have the opportunity to work with researchers at NASA Ames. They will learn advanced geospatial technologies, conduct hands-on research activities in earth systems science, and participate in internship and career development programs at NASA.

--- Joan Weiner, CSUMB