Report on the site visit to San Diego State University On behalf of the University Corporation of Atmospheric Research (UCAR) Membership Committee, Tom Bogdan and Karen Shell (hereafter referred to as the evaluation committee) visited San Diego State University (SDSU) on May 4, 2015 to evaluate its application for UCAR membership. Founded in 1897, San Diego State University is the oldest and largest university in San Diego, and the third largest in the state. SDSU enrolls 25,000 undergraduate and 5,000 graduate students. The university has an annual research budget of >$100 million. For example, they secured $145 million in research grants and contracts in 2013. SDSU is also a Hispanic- Serving Institution. The site visit started Monday morning, when the evaluation committee was joined by the Co- Directors of the Center for Climate and Sustainability Studies: Dr. Samuel Shen, Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, and Dr. Walter C. Oechel, Distinguished Professor of Biology, for breakfast at the hotel. Sam Shen served as the primary ambassador for the evaluation committee s site visit. After a wide- ranging discussion of the importance of climate research and education, the committee got a quick walk through campus before meeting with SDSU President Elliot Hirshman. The President expressed his strong commitment to climate studies. In particular, the Center for Climate and Sustainability Studies (C2S2) was selected via a 2013 campus- wide competition as one of four SDSU Areas of Excellence. The President also discussed his strategy for making SDSU competitive in the changing world of higher education; in particular, his focus on targeted areas of research, such as climate science, where SDSU excels. Next, the committee toured the campus, visiting the Homeland Security VizCenter/WIFIRE program and Dr. Shen s Climate Informatics Lab. We then gathered with a large number of faculty in the Dean of Science s Conference Room for presentations by administrators and faculty on programs of atmospheric and climate research and teaching. Assistant Vice President of International Programs Al Sweedler; Geoff Chase, Dean of Undergraduate Studies; Dean of College of Arts and Letters Paul Wong; and Dean of Science Stanley Maloy gave quick presentations on various climate science programs at the university. Following this, UCAR President Tom Bogdan provided an overview of UCAR, NCAR, and UCP, highlighting programs supporting the consortium s education and research goals. The attendees were very interested in research facilities and the various education and training activities provided by UCAR. Next were a number of presentations on climate and related programs (described in more detail below). Following a box lunch, where conversations from the morning continued, faculty affiliated with the Center for Climate and Sustainability Studies introduced research initiative, programs, and collaboration opportunities (summarized below). The afternoon wrapped up with concluding remarks by Tom Bogdan and Vice- President for Research Steve Welter. The evaluation committee
was impressed that so many people attended this entire meeting (not just their own portions), devoting ¾ of a day to learning about the various research and educational programs at SDSU and asking and answering questions of the evaluation committee. While there are already clearly many interdisciplinary at cross- program interactions among SDSU faculty, the faculty expressed interest that UCAR membership could serve as a further catalyst to bring scientists together across disciplines. Figure 1: Preparing for presentations in the Dean of Sciences' Conference Room. Photo by Tom Bogdan. The visit concluded with a well- attended harbor- view dinner, providing a final chance for informal interaction. Program of Studies and Research The Center for Climate and Sustainability Studies (C2S2, http://c2s2.sdsu.edu/) is leading the application for membership to UCAR. C2S2 is an interdisciplinary unit that facilitates collaboration among research and educational programs in climate and sustainability studies. C2S2 currently has 10 tenure track faculty, with one current faculty search and another planned from next spring. The Center has 45 graduate students, 2 postdocs, and 2 visiting scholars. Faculty members are housed in four departments: Anthropology (Associate Professor Matthew Lauer, Assistant
Professor Todd Braje), Biology (Distinguished Professor Walter Oechel, Associate Professor Chun- Ta Lai, Assistant Professor Donatella Zona, Professor David Lipson), Geography (Associate Professor Trent Biggs, Assistant Professor Fernando De Sales), and Mathematics and Statistics (Distinguished Professor Sam Shen, Associate Professor Bo- Wen Shen). C2S2 faculty run six research labs and groups: Archaeology Lab, Climate Informatics Lab, Ecosystem Ecology Lab, Environmental Anthropology Lab, Global Change Research Group, and Soil Microbial Ecology Lab. It participates in various SDSU joint PhD programs, such as the Ecology PhD program with the University of California, Davis and the Mathematics and Science Education PhD program with the University of California, San Diego. The C2S2 faculty teach more than 500 undergraduate students during any given semester. Student degrees are offered through the four participating departments. In the last five years, the four departments have granted more than 500 B.S. degrees, 100 M.S. degrees, and eight PhD degrees to students who have taken courses or conducted research in climate sciences. During that time, their graduate students have published more than 50 papers in AMS and AGU journals. They have presented at AGU, AMS, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), and American Mathematical Society (AMathS) annual meetings. Students have opportunities to participate in field work. For example, more than 30 students have made field trips to Alaska and Artic research sites with Drs. Walter Oechel and Dona Zona. Outside of C2S2, additional faculty in Engineering and Geography perform UCAR- relevant research and educational activities related in areas such as water resources and environmental engineering, remote sensing of land cover and land use, climatology, hydrology, oceanography, and Earth Sciences. The SDSU Viz Center specializes in organizing and delivering geospatial data over small networks (terabytes to the handheld) for emergency response and disasters. By linking emerging technologies, innovative back- end processing, and operational needs especially for disaster, the Viz Center community is attempting to assist the community, region, nation, and world in responding to difficult situations with critical information, knowledge, and decision- support tools. Some applications relevant for Earth Sciences include WIFIRE (rapid wildfire prediction) and earthquake planning. The Biology Department (represented by David Lipson) carries out research in ecological, climate change, and biogeochemical cycling. A new evolutionary plant biologist with an interest in climate change will be hired next fall. The Ecology Program Area has three focal areas: Conservation and Restoration Ecology, Coastal Marine Ecology, and Ecosystem Ecology and Global Change. SDSU also operates field stations, such as the Sky Oaks Field Station, 1200 acres of chaparral and oak woodland with a complex fire history; and the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve, 4500 acres of coastal sage scrub, chaparral, and the last free- flowing river in Southern California.
Trent Biggs, Director of the Watershed Science Institute, described their efforts in watershed science and management focused on the San Diego Tijuana Watershed area. The Institute includes 18 faculty across campus and fosters long- term relationships between SDSU faculty and students and the water management community. Piotr Jankowski, Chair of the Geography Department, gave on overview of climate- related geography research and teaching. Geography has 18 faculty members, 7 of whom are involved with climate. Particular areas of research include fire and climate, climate and human adaptation, vegetation and regional climate dynamics, and radiative effects of aerosol particles and emissions associate with fires. Al Sweedler, Assistant Vice President for International Programs described the Environmental Science program. This is a 4- yr BS degree in the College of Science with approximately 80 students. Students participate in capstone project, and many of these are related to water and climate change. David Kimbrough, Chair of the Geological Sciences Department, described some of their general education geology and oceanography courses. One of the main goals of these classes is for students to like science and how it can be used to solve problems. Jose Castillo, Director of Computational Science Research Center discussed graduate programs and described work by the Coastal Ocean Group using high- resolution ocean models. The remainder of the session focuses on specific research presentations. Examples of research areas included feedbacks of Arctic ecosystems on climate change, multiscale simulations of tropical cycle formation with a global mesoscale model, climate data reconstruction and modeling, coastal ocean model using general curvilinear modeling, adaptive capacities of human institutions, effects of land cover and climate change on watershed processes, geographic information science and remote sensing [Center for Earth Systems Analysis Research], and post- fire hydrology. Presenters also described the TelaScience Geo- Data Pipeline, which provides an automated data pipeline for various real- time applications, such as fire modeling, and GeoViewer@sanDiego, which provides multi- scale multi- channel, social media disaster warning and broadcast for earthquake, fires, etc. Future plans: In addition to the two new faculty members C2S2 expects to hire, they will develop ten new courses on climate modeling, sustainability, and climate big data. Graduate student population will be increased to 70. The publication rate will be increased to 50 papers per year, and the external funding level will be increased to $2.5M per year. In the future, under the guidance of the SDSU Strategic Plan, C2S2 will not only continue to collaborate closely with the four home departments, but work with other departments that pay attention to climate sciences, such as the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, which hired two faculty members in 2014: Alicia M. Kinoshita, Assistant Professor in Water Resources Engineering, and Natalie Mladenov, Assistant Professor in Environmental Engineering. Thus, C2S2 members will be expanded according to the new SDSU hires, in the climate and sustainability areas, and in the broad areas related to UCAR interests.
Progress in UCAR- related Sciences C2S2 faculty have received research grants and contracts from virtually every national agency that supports climate sciences, such as NSF, NASA, NOAA, DOE, ONR, and EPA. They have also been supported by state and local organizations, such as the California State University Water Initiative and San Diego Foundation. C2S2 s external funding level is about $1.5M per year. From 2013 through 2015, C2S2 faculty have published approximately 64 papers. The following table lists some specific research areas of faculty in C2S2: Research Direction Faculty Anthropology (environment and ecology): Lauer, Braje, Sam Shen Archaeology (marine and coast): Braje, Lauer, Lipson Arctic climate: Oechel, Zona Carbon fluxes: Oechel, Zona, Lipson, Sam Shen Climate change: Oechel, Sam Shen, Braje, Lauer, Lipson Climate data analysis and reconstruction: Sam Shen, Braje, Lauer, Lai, Oechel Climate modeling: B.- W. Shen, Sam Shen Fire and ecology: Lipson, sam Shen Hurricane modeling and weather risks: B.- W. Shen, Sam Shen Hydrology and land cover: Trent, Oechel, Sam Shen, B.- W. Shen Soil microbial ecology: Lipson, Oechel, Lai Sustainability studies: Oechel, Lipson, Lai, Lauer, Braje, Sam Shen Terrestrial ecosystem/ Isotope indicator: Lai, Oechel Uncertainty quantification and error analysis: Sam Shen, B.- W. Shen C2S2 faculty provide various research products to the climate community. The climate Informatics Lab provides Spectral Optimal Gridding For Precipitation Version 1.0 (SOGP 1.0): Videos, Data and Computer Programs for Global Precipitation Back To 1900 and Daily Tibetan Plateau Snow Cover since 1997 data. The Soil Microbial Ecology Lab provides Arctic Soil Metagenomes (GenBank Sequence Read Archives(accession number SRP020650)). In summary, SDSU has particularly notable interdisciplinary strengths in the areas such as the intersections of climate change and ecology with fire and/or water resources and big data, computational, and communication resources for socially relevant climate, water, and anthropological studies. Participation in UCAR Activities
SDSU faculty have already participated in UCAR/NCAR activities, and this participation will increase when they become a UCAR member. Examples of some activities include: Dr. Shen was invited by NCAR in July 2014 to lecture at The International Surface Temperature Initiative meeting on uncertainty quantification, organized by NCAR s IMAGe and Statistical and Applied Mathematical Science Institute (SAMSI). SDSU scientists use some of the NCAR community models for their research, such as WRF (e.g., De Sales) and CAM3 (e.g., Sam Shen s research group), and TelaScience has received a Unidata award for equipment. Recommendation and Assessment of the Evaluation Committee Figure 2: Sam Shen and Karen Shell walking through SDSU campus. Photo by Tom Bogdan. The evaluation committee thanks San Diego State University planning such a thoughtful and informative site visit. SDSU s commitment to climate and atmospheric science research and education, as evidenced by the recent creation of the Center for Climate and Sustainability Studies, will make it a valuable addition to UCAR. The evaluation committee thus finds that SDSU fulfills the UCAR criteria for membership and, hence, recommends the university for UCAR membership.