Berkeley Lab’s Earth & Environmental Sciences Area is a premier Earth sciences research organization where scientists are tackling some of the most pressing environmental and energy challenges of the 21st Century in order to enable sustainable stewardship and judicious use of the Earth’s resources. With the breadth of expertise of integrated teams offered by the Climate and Ecosystem Sciences and the Energy Geosciences Divisions, the Area vision is to lead the nation in solving complex environment and energy challenges. EESA’s history is featured in articles produced to showcase Berkeley Lab’s scientific achievements during its 90th anniversary year in 2021. An article explored EESA’s past, while interviews with Susan Hubbard and Charuleka Varadharajan showcased its present work and future opportunities. The timeline below explores EESA’s achievements over the decades in more detail.
Our History
Our Divisions
Climate & Ecosystem Sciences
Our scientists measure and model critical environmental and biological systems, exchanges between the biosphere and atmosphere, climatic and atmospheric processes, and interactions between society and its natural surroundings by translating data from advanced laboratories, experiments, and large field stations into better tools for predicting the implications of climatic change.
Energy Geosciences
Our scientists integrate cutting-edge numerical, observational and experimental approaches in both fundamental and applied research projects to promote safe subsurface storage of energy by-products, to enhance subsurface recovery from renewable sources, and to improve efficiency and environmental sustainability of oil and gas production from conventional and unconventional resources.
Our Program Domains
Climate & Ecosystem Sciences
Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions
Climate & Atmospheric Processes
Earth Systems & Society
Environmental & Biological Systems Science
Energy Geosciences
Discovery Geosciences
Energy Resources
Resilient Energy, Water and Infrastructure
Our Departments
Climate Sciences
Ecology
Geochemistry
Geophysics
Hydrogeology
Area Department personnel composed of scientists, scientific associates and technicians, postdocs, graduate researchers, students, and affiliates can often work across our Divisions within multiple Program Domains.
Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge the support of our major sponsors in the Department of Energy, which include the Office of Science, ARPA-e, Basic Energy Sciences, Biological & Environmental Research, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Environmental Management, Fossil Energy, Nuclear Energy. We also appreciate the support received from other state and federal agencies and through partnerships with other National Laboratories and Universities. Lastly, we must also acknowledge and thank our industrial, as well as international collaborators, who provide both financial and in-kind support through various partnership projects, and who bring additional ideas, data, and experience to EESA.