About Us
The Cooperative Institute for Climate Science (CICS) was founded in 2003 to foster research collaborations between Princeton University and the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Its work is carried out through a partnership between the Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI), an interdisciplinary center, and the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (AOS) Program, an independent program in the Department of Geosciences.
The Cooperative Institute for Climate Science (CICS) is built upon the strengths of Princeton University in biogeochemistry, physical oceanography, paleoclimate, hydrology, ecosystem ecology, climate change mitigation technology, economics and policy; and those of GFDL in modeling the atmosphere, oceans, weather and climate. CICS is an outgrowth of a highly successful forty-year collaboration between Princeton University’s Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (AOS) Program and GFDL that contributed to the development of oceanic and atmospheric models, performed research on climate and biogeochemical cycling and educated several generations of postdoctoral researchers and graduate students. The establishment of CICS enhances and extends this long-term partnership by incorporating Princeton University faculty affiliated with the interdisciplinary Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI), thereby augmenting its expertise in the sciences, engineering and policy and facilitating new research collaborations.