About CRCES

Mission

The Center for Research on the Changing Earth System (CRCES) is a non-profit, tax-exempt (under IRS Code 501(c)(3)) organization incorporated in the State of Maryland, U.S.A., with the mission:

  • To develop water and food security options for the world to adapt to natural decadal climate cycles.

CRCES’s specific goals are:

  • To describe and understand interactions among the Earth System components (atmosphere-hydrosphere-biosphere) leading to slow variability within the Earth System components.
  • To understand how this slow variability interacts with short-lived climate events, climate variability induced by variable solar output, and human-induced climate changes.
  • To understand the role of these slow Earth System events in food, energy, and water availability at sub-continental to global scales.
  • To contribute to future observing system design for these slow Earth System events.
  • To assess and predict societal impacts of these slow Earth System events at sub-continental to global scales.
  • To contribute to government and private-sector policy developments for societal adaptation to these slow Earth System events.

CRCES expects to make progress towards these goals by:

  • Attracting dedicated professionals in relevant fields and integrating them into a multidisciplinary team.
  • Evolving a physical and intellectual environment conducive to creative destruction of barriers among relevant branches of Earth and Social Sciences.
  • Adapting state-of-the-art hardware and software technologies for data and information systems.
  • Evolving climate research guided by societal impacts of climate variability and change.
  • Developing collaborations with like-minded individuals and institutions.

In its innovative approach to organizational development along one or more focused themes, CRCES was inspired by and follows successful non-profit organizations for climate research such as The Institute for Global Environment and Society and Earth and Space Research.

CRCES expects to generate its operating expenses from peer-reviewed proposals to federal funding agencies such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency; private Foundations; unilateral and multilateral aid institutions; and private donors.

Board of Directors

CRCES is governed by a Board of Directors and Officers consisting of: