About the Center
The Commonwealth Center for Energy and the Environment is concerned with the advancement of cutting-edge interdisciplinary teaching and research that integrates fully the capacity and expertise in the disciplines of policy and science within the schools, departments and programs at William & Mary.
The Center’s planning, operation, research and teaching agenda, and proposal review and selection is overseen by the Program Steering Committee.
The core mission of the Center is to provide an open, stimulating and inclusive environment that supports and facilitates the engagement of faculty and students from across the university. It is in one sense, a think-tank dedicated to the development and support of interdisciplinary work concerned directly with the societal and environmental challenges of the 21st C and beyond. The Center also supports a unique environment for interdisciplinary teaching and research, dedicated to the education and preparation of future leaders whose academic experiences enhance creative thinking and take them to the frontiers of new knowledge and new possibilities.
Charged to stimulate new interdisciplinary possibilities in research and teaching, the Center supports a range of developmental opportunities for faculty and students from across the university. These are intended to increase creative opportunities for groups of faculty and students and to provide initiating support for the development of new ideas that can lead to expansion and extra-mural funding. To this end, the Center invites proposals for developmental support from interdisciplinary groups within the College. Options include short-term Environmental Enquiry Groups for early development and coordination, and longer-term Environmental Quest Groups that support full project development and the early stages of initiation. Read more about these program options.
The Center also provides the primary locus for coordination and information about interdisciplinary environmental research and teaching at William & Mary. Read the white paper (pdf) and survey results (pdf).
