We are facing environmental problems head on through groundbreaking, data-driven research that crosses disciplines.

Research Centers and Partners

Researchers at the Bren School collaborate across disciplines and departments, and oftentimes across the globe, to make a real impact solving environmental problems. Graduate students, post-docs, and visiting researchers benefit from Bren’s close partnership with these centers, institutes, and labs around the world

Strategic Environmental Research Initiatives

The Bren School's Strategic Environmental Research Initiative (SERI) program was launched to create new collaborations aimed at developing timely solutions to the grand environmental problems of our time. Involved faculty have the opportunity to assemble a broad community of scholars from the Bren School, the greater UCSB campus, and beyond to achieve significant progress in addressing these large-scale environmental challenges. SERI topics are also integrated into the Bren master's and PhD curricula, the Bren public colloquium series, and campus-wide activities.

SERI-Fire

Wildfires have been increasing in the western U.S. and elsewhere, a trend that is expected to continue with climate change. And while fire plays a vital role in maintaining the health of many ecosystems, it can also be a destructive force that puts human communities at risk. Recent ecological research has highlighted how changes in climate and land-management practices can affect fire regimes and their impacts. 

Wildfire risk and climate change is the theme of SERI-Fire, a project funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC). Participating scientists develop new management strategies to prepare for and respond to wildfires in a changing climate. Learn more about the partners, research, and their findings at Serifire.com.