Homepage background image

Knowledge & leadership for a sustainable future

News & Research

Panelists in conversation on stage during Environmental Joy conference
Events

Environmental Joy Conference Focuses on Resilience in the Face of Challenges Ahead

At the 6th annual Global Environmental Justice Conference at YSE, scientists, researchers, advocates, and practitioners came together to identify opportunities and formulate strategies to advance environmental justice issues across partisan divides.

Real-World Impacts

Aerial view of forest in autumn

Maximizing Forest Carbon Removal

YSE scientists mapped out natural pathways in U.S. forests to remove 1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year and store it on a gigaton scale, a figure necessary to help meet national net-zero emissions goals. Sara Kuebbing, research scientist and director of the Yale Applied Science Synthesis Program, led a team evaluating forest management practices in the Northeast, Western, and Southeastern U.S. They found that regenerative silviculture practices, fire management techniques, and planting new forests are critical to increasing forest resilience and carbon storage capacity. The findings were part of a U.S. Department of Energy report.

Pacific Coast

Mainstreaming Nature in U.S. Policy

Eli Fenichel, Knobloch Family Professor of Natural Resources, played a critical role in ensuring that information about nature is included in U.S. policy and federal decision-making process.  He helped draft a first-of-its-kind guidance that provides a blueprint for assessing the impacts of federal rules on natural assets.

“Mainstreaming nature is taking a systems thinking approach, with a bit of extra care to make sure information about nature enters the process — in ways it often has not in the past,” Fenichel said. “It is good governance.”

A small stream with grass growing in the water

Evaluating Impacts of Ephemeral Streams on Water Quality

A study by YSE researchers that documented the impacts of ephemeral streams on river output is helping to evaluate the effects of a Supreme Court decision that limited federal jurisdiction over their regulation under the Clean Water Act.

The study, co-authored by Peter Raymond, Oastler Professor of Biogeochemistry, found that ephemeral streams, which flow only briefly after precipitation events, influence a substantial amount of water output of the nation’s rivers and are likely a significant pathway through which pollution may influence downstream water quality.

Bears Ears National Monument seen from a distance at dusk

Strengthening Tribal Co-Management of Public Lands

Working with stakeholders from the federal government, tribal communities, and conservation groups, the Yale Center for Environmental Justice (YCEJ) in partnership with The Forest School completed a first-of-its-kind white paper that sets a foundation for Tribal co-management of public lands

There are more than 600 million acres of public lands in the U.S. of which 100 million acres are Indigenous lands. 

“Tribal co-management is truly a force multiplier. It places real decision making in the hands of our original stewards,” said Pat Gonzales Rogers, YSE lecturer and co-author of the paper.  

multiple large windmills on gently rolling hills

Measuring the Inflation Reduction Act’s Effectiveness

Matt Ashenfarb, a YSE doctoral candidate is studying the effects of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) on local economies, specifically its role in expanding clean energy investments. In one study, Ashenfarb and coauthors found that investment in clean energy projects roughly doubled in economically disadvantaged communities and parts of the country typically reliant on fossil fuel production. “The preliminary data suggest that IRA policies are working as intended,” Ashenfarb said. “Clean investments are growing everywhere, but particularly in those places that otherwise stood to lose most from the transition to a clean-energy economy.”

Meet Our Students and Alumni

Landry Guillen
Bekenstein Climate Leaders

Landry Guillen

Goal: Integrating environmental justice with ecological stewardship 

As a child, Landry Guillen ’25 MF lived near acres of farmland in California's arid Imperial County. The region is one of the country's leading agricultural producers but has been grappling with the effects of climate change, including persistent water shortages along the Colorado River. 

While attending the University of California, Santa Barbara, Guillen worked at the university’s urban farm and food bank and that led her to realize that circular food systems can play a major role in climate solutions.

Mike Johnson

A Market-based Approach to Climate Action in Washington

Washington state is aiming to eliminate or offset its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Mike Johnson ‘16 MEM heads the auction process of the state’s cap-and-invest program, which has generated massive revenue for investments in climate resiliency, clean transportation, and other community programs.

“Washington taking action on climate change through a market-based approach not only creates financial incentives to reduce emissions but also drives innovation in energy production and carbon removal — whether through natural processes or engineered solutions. Our goal is an economy-wide transition away from carbon fuels, toward more efficient, equitable, and sustainable solutions.”

Shubh Jain
Bekenstein Climate Leaders

Shubh Jain

Goal: Decarbonize the energy sector globally in sustainable, scalable ways

Shubh Jain ’25 MEM first became interested in climate change through a class in documentary filmmaking. As an undergraduate initially majoring in physics at the University at Buffalo, Jain took a class with filmmaker John Fiege, who is known for his film and photography work on global ecology and environmental justice issues. Jain worked with Fiege on the production of “Raising Aniya,” a documentary about a young dancer’s life after Hurricane Harvey. 

Siria Gamez in a climbing harness placing a camera in the tree tops

Tracking Big Cats in the Sierra Madres Mountains

Siria Gámez tracks big cats — all the way up 80-foot trees.  A doctoral student in YSE's Applied Wildlife Ecology lab, Gámez had special training to set up camera traps in the tree canopy of the El Triunfo Biosphere to examine how jaguars, pumas, and other carnivores use vertical spaces in the Sierra Madre de Chiapas mountains in Mexico.

“This particular region of Mexico is quite understudied,” says Gámez. “We’re exploring how these animals survive in this three-dimensional forest structure.”

Iyer portrait
Three Cairns Scholars

Mahica Iyer, United Arab Emirates

Goal: Engage in sustainable business and development projects that empower local communities

Ever since she was a child, Mahica Iyer ’25 MEM has straddled two worlds: She grew up amid the glittering towers of Dubai, UAE. The community in her hometown of Mumbai, meanwhile, experienced frequent power outages, a scarcity of clean water, and poor waste management. Iyer later attended college in Illinois and then went on to work as a consultant in supply chain sustainability.

Ben Girgenti

Experiments in Reducing Methane Emissions

Researching natural ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Ben Girgenti ’22 MESc tested whether adding minerals to wetland ecosystems can reduce biological methane emissions. After adding iron to the soil of mini wetlands, Girgenti found that methane was reduced by the mineral enhancement.

“If you’re building or using wetlands for natural carbon capture, you could shut off or decrease methane emissions, reducing the amount of time it takes for wetlands to begin having new sequestration of carbon,” Girgenti says.

Benedicta Frimpomaa Asiedu
Three Cairns Scholars

Benedicta Asiedu, Ghana

Goal: Advancing Ghana’s transition to a net-zero economy

Benedicta Asiedu ’25 MEM has witnessed profound economic transformation in her home country of Ghana. It is one of the world’s largest exporters of gold, and it exports agricultural goods, most significantly cacao, to global markets. Since 2007, when oil in commercial quantities was first discovered, Ghana has also become a producer and exporter of crude oil. These three commodities alone have helped the country move from the edge of economic collapse three decades ago to, as the World Bank declared in 2019, the world’s fastest growing economy. (This growth has since slowed.)

Singh portrair
Three Cairns Scholars

Srishti Singh, India

Goal: Merge finance and water management for a more just and secure water future

According to the World Bank, the Global South could lose up to 6% of its GDP by 2050 due to water scarcity, with women and the poor most vulnerable.

Srishti Singh ’25 MEM is well aware of these, and many other, water-related challenges, as she most recently worked at India’s Central Pollution Control Board, where she was the sole social scientist on a team of physical scientists. “I realized I needed interdisciplinary training to become an effective leader in the water and climate space,” she says. “This led me to Yale.”

Portrait of Valdez
Three Cairns Scholars

Laura Polanco Valdez, Dominican Republic

Goal: Work as a bridge between policymakers and academia to advance climate mitigation and adaptation strategies

Climate change poses a particular threat to island nations. Laura Polanco Valdez, who was born and raised in the Dominican Republic, understands this very well. Her homeland was ranked one of the 10 most affected nations by climate events between 1997 and 2016, according to the Global Climate Index. The pace of these events is only accelerating, and their scale increasing.

Rae Wynn Grant photographed by Tsalni Lassiter

Tracking Bear Movements

After Rae Wynn-Grant ’10 MESc studied bears in the Nevada mountains, the National Geographic Society sent her to conduct similar work with the American Prairie Reserve in the grasslands of Montana — a region where bears are not common.

The nonprofit is seeking create a national wildlife refuge. Wynn-Grant began working with carnivores while at YSE, tracking lions in Tanzania. She has leaned on her expertise to predict which habitats will attract bears, using state and federal data and camera traps to monitor bear movements and habitats.

Pete Caligiuri in a forested area

Fighting Fire with Fire

As wildfires across the U.S. and Canada continue to endanger human health and wildlife, Pete Caligiuri ’10 MF, forest strategy director for The Nature Conservancy in Oregon, is working on fire suppression.

And these efforts include setting fires. “Frequent, extreme wildfires are a threat, but fire has to be part of the solution. Fire always has been a part of these landscapes. Beneficial fire — like prescribed burns and managed wildfires — is essential to the long-term resilience of these forest landscapes into the future,” Caligiuri says.

Jinali Mody with a Banofi Leather purse, standing among banana plants the purse was sourced from

Creating Sustainable Fashion

Jinali Mody ’23 MEM is reducing the environmental impacts from fashion with a new vegan alternative leather made from banana crop waste that the company says uses 90% less water in production than animal leather products and results in 90% less carbon emissions. “Solving the climate crisis requires concerted efforts across all industries and not just energy, transportation, and carbon capture. Building a sustainable fashion industry is the need of the hour,” says Mody. 

In 2023, Mody’s company, Banofi Leather, won the $1 million Hult Prize, which is given to student entrepreneurs whose ideas create a measurable positive impact on people and the planet. 

Rujanavech

Eliminating Electronic Waste in the Tech Industry

Charissa Rujanavech ’13 MEM is a tech industry innovator, developing novel ways to recycle and eliminate electronic waste. Shortly after graduating from YSE, she invented Liam, an automated disassembly system that can take apart more than 1 million iPhones a year so the components can be reused. She has continued her work in the circular economy, promoting a closed-loop supply chain for major retailers, including Amazon, and is now developing new technologies and partnerships to decarbonize refrigeration, retail operations, and food waste at Albertsons Companies.

Reid Lewis on a snowy day near a frozen lake

Stewarding Forests in the Face of Climate Change 

Forests help mitigate climate change because of their ability to remove and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but they become carbon emitters during wildfires. PhD student Reid Lewis '20 MF is researching how satellite data and machine learning models can help fire-prone forests become more resilient.

“When we make these forests more fire resilient, we can not only store more carbon, we can also help protect human communities, foster wildlife habitat, safeguard watersheds, and can use the process of restoration to partner with and empower Indigenous nations,” says Lewis.

Nenha Young

Financing the Transition to Clean Energy

Transitioning to clean energy is key to combating climate change. As director of policy and network at the Coalition for Green Capitol, Nenha Young ’20 MEM is targeting greenhouse gas reduction initiatives through investments in the environmental, social, and economic sectors and working to establish the National Green Bank.

“I attended YSE because of its leadership in the clean energy field,” Young says. “Through coursework, internships, and independent studies, I was able to design a career at the intersection of clean energy and economic development.”

Hugh Brown under a canopy of bamboo

Rehabilitating Ghana’s Forests

After a decade as director of operations for Ghana’s Forestry Commission, overseeing the country’s commercial forest plantation development and land restoration, Hugh Brown ’10 MF was named executive director of the Commission's Forest Services Division in 2022.

The Commission has begun the restoration of more than 450,000 hectares of degraded forests and planted millions of new trees under Brown's leadership — part of a major reforestation initiative by the Ghanaian government to contribute to global climate action.

Caroline Tasirin at Y20 Indonesia

Empowering Young Leaders

In July, Indonesia hosted the Y20 Summit, an annual gathering of youth leaders from G20 nations. This year's summit emphasized a sustainable and livable planet, and its recommendations will be presented at the upcoming G20 Summit in November. Caroline Tasirin ’19 MFS — a lecturer in the forestry program at Indonesia’s Sam Ratulangi University and co-founder of SULUT Semangat, a program that empowers Indonesian youths to connect with nature — represented the host nation and served as co-chair of the selection committee for Indonesia. “I'm proud to have contributed my insight and honored to collaborate with diverse youth leaders,” she says. 

Deneile Cooper speaking at a Housing Authority event in New York City

Waste Warrior

As founding chair of the New York City Public Housing Authority Recycling Committee, DeNeile Cooper ’22 MEM is working to boost recycling efforts in public housing units.

Only 2% of waste from NYCHA units is recycled. Nationally, that rate is 32%.

“This work has been successful so far because it involves a variety of stakeholders who bring unique perspectives to create programs that work for everyone,” says Cooper, who is a member of the Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Board.

Lia Nicholson

Speaking for the Islands

At the end of 2021, Lia Nicholson ’14 MEM traveled to Glasgow, Scotland, on a mission with existential stakes. As the lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States at the U.N.’s annual climate change conference, COP26, Nicholson represented the bloc of 39 small island nations, which together comprise 20% of all U.N. member states. While the numbers alone can seem abstract, the difference between a global temperature rise of 1.5° Celsius over the preindustrial baseline and a rise of 2° is “existential” for the vulnerable AOSIS nations that were among the first to have to reckon with the impacts of climate change nearly 30 years ago, she says.

Morgan Pierce

Greening the Supply Chain

As a YSE student, Morgan Pierce ’20 MEM did her summer internship at McDonald’s, where she worked with its global suppliers on strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. After graduating she was hired as manager of strategy and alignment, where she has continued to address sustainability issues related to customers’ experience with dining and take-out.

“If we have YSE graduates like me sitting at the tables in these large organizations that control decisions on sustainability, then we can really be a catalyst of change,” Pierce says.

Hear From Today’s Emerging Climate Leaders

YSE students develop leadership and negotiating skills through their participation in international conferences, such as the UN Climate Change Conference and the United Nations Biodiversity Conference. Learn more from Three Cairns Scholars Fiacro Jimenez Ramirez ’25 MEM, who attended COP28 in Dubai, UAE, and Natalia Espinosa Caballero’25 MEM, who attended the 2024 World Food Forum in Rome, Italy.

Natalia Espinosa Caballero ’25 MEM

Fiacro Jimenez Ramirez ’25 MEM

Fast Facts

2024 Incoming Cohort

35%

International Students

35% of the 2024-2025 master's cohort are from outside the United States.

95%

Receive Financial Aid

95% of incoming master's students who completed the YSE aid application will receive financial aid.

2023 Incoming Masters

21%

5+ Years Work Experience

21% of incoming master's students have more than five years of work experience.

20-46

Age Range

The current class of first-year master’s students at YSE range in age from 20 to 46, with an average of 26. Our incoming class enters with an average of 3 to 4 years of professional experience.

2024 Incoming Cohort

23/31

Countries/States

In our Fall 2024 class, students come from 23 countries and 31 states and U.S territories.

Degrees & Programs

The Yale School of the Environment offers a variety of degree programs, many of which can be customized to meet each student’s professional goals, and prepare them for careers in environmental science, management, and policy.

Master’s Program

Apply to a Master's Program