YPCCC’s Eric Fine Honored With Kroon Cup
As a project manager at the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, Eric Fine’s dedication to sustainability extends far beyond his job description. He leads by example: biking to work in all weather, personally maintaining the campus bike repair station he helped install, pushing for carbon-free retirement investment options, and is working towards net-zero at home.
In recognition of his efforts, Fine was awarded the Yale School of the Environment Kroon Cup, , which is presented annually to individuals and groups that embody stewardship and implement projects that engage and inspire the YSE community. Students, staff, and faculty vote to determine the winner among a list of nominated candidates.
One of his nominators said it best. “Nobody more than Eric walks the talk on advancing YSE's mission of sustainability on a daily basis, through his individual actions and on behalf of the YPCCC and the YSE community.”
More News in Brief
Mapping Public Opinion on Climate Change Across the UK
Urban residents in the United Kingdom perceive greater risks from climate change than rural residents, according to new opinion maps released by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.
The online interactive maps depict public climate change beliefs, risk perceptions, policy support, and experiences with climate impacts across the U.K. by respondents 16 years and older in 12 regions who were surveyed in November, 2024. The responses show that a majority of U.K. residents believe climate change is happening (85%), that it is caused mostly by human activities (74%), and is worrisome (78%). However, 84% believe it is a distant threat, harming future generations. Only 55% think it will harm them personally, despite many of the respondents reporting that they dealt with major floods in the past year.
“The mismatch between personal experience and climate attribution revealed by the maps is consistent with prior research finding that direct exposure to extreme weather does not automatically translate into stronger belief that climate change affects these events,” the Yale researchers note.
Photo credit: SteveAllenPhoto via iStock
Fenichel Paper Honored for Enduring Impact on Epidemic Modeling
Eli Fenichel, the Knobloch Family Professor of Natural Resource Economics, and co-authors have been awarded the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association’s 2025 Paper of Enduring Quality Award for their 2011 PNAS paper on integrating human behavior into models of infectious disease. The study laid key foundations for interdisciplinary research, bridging economics and epidemiology—an approach that proved critical during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I saw a lot of epidemiologists and economists recommending it to each other to figure out how to collaborate on COVID-19 research,” Fenichel said. “I think it set a benchmark for interdisciplinary research on epidemics.”
The award will be presented at the AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado, on July 28.
Eli Fenichel
Knobloch Family Professor of Natural Resource Economics
Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture-related Nonprofit Wins Global Carbon Removal Prize
Mati Carbon, an environmental nonprofit that builds on enhanced rock weathering research by scientists at the Yale School of the Environment and Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture (YCNCC), won the $50 million XPRIZE Carbon Removal international competition for pioneering a crushed-rock solution that pulls carbon from the air and restores farmland.
Noah Planavsky, associate professor of earth and planetary sciences, who is a faculty member at YCNCC and head of Mati Carbon’s scientific advisory board, developed methods to track carbon fluxes that the nonprofit used in pilot programs concentrated on small farms in the Global South. More than 1,300 groups from 88 countries took part in the competition, which required teams to create and demonstrate a system for pulling CO2 directly from the atmosphere or oceans and durably sequester it.
Part of a suite of natural carbon solutions, enhanced rock weathering has been a focus of research by Peter Raymond, the Oastler Professor of Biogeochemistry at YSE, who will become director of YCNCC on June 30, and James Saiers, the Clifton R. Musser Professor of Hydrology, who also serves on YCNCC’s leadership.