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Avoiding the worst consequences of climate change has become one of humanity ’ s most pressing challenges . That ’ s why UC San Diego ’ s Deep Decarbonization Initiative takes a multidisciplinary approach — combining the best technological and scientific expertise with a nuanced understanding of modern societies — the economic , political and social factors that can make or break real change .
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT George Tynan , David Victor , Ying Shirley Meng , Oleg Shpyrko , Stephen Mayfield , Cliff Kubiak , Jan Kleissl , Bill Torre , Byron Washom , Kate Ricke
The initiative ’ s two leaders embody this intersection : Jacobs School of Engineering ’ s George Tynan , focused on nuclear fusion as an energy source , and David Victor , a political science and policy expert with the School of Global Policy and Strategy . Yet efforts are compounded by a host of parties across campus , working to understand not only the science of moving our global energy economy to zero carbon emissions , but how policy work and social movements can help us get there .
Biologist Stephen Mayfield leads Food & Fuel for the 21st Century , a research unit developing solutions for biofuel production using green plants and algae . Together with chemist Cliff Kubiak , the unit will host the world ’ s leading minds at the International Solar Fuels Conference at UC San Diego this July .
An interdisciplinary dream team of David Victor , Jan Kleissl and Bill Torre together perform economic modeling of microgrids , investigating how much decentralizing the energy grid can help decarbonize our world . UC San Diego ’ s campus even leads by example with a phenomenal microgrid orchestrated by Byron Washom , the university ’ s director of strategic energy initiatives .
37 TRITON | SPRING 2017