News

Last month DSE participated in the United Nations Biodiversity Conference in Cali, Colombia (COP16). COP16 was the world’s largest biodiversity event to date. It builds on the inaugural COP in 1994 and the global conferences that have followed since. 

Read a spotlight on our research re: ending global plastic pollution in the Associated Press.

Ahead of global plastic treaty negotiations in North Korea, see DSE's research on opportunities to end plastic pollution featured in NPR.

Check out DSE's research on ending plastic pollution in the New York Times (November 2024).

Today, we’re thrilled to announce the release of our paper in Science: Pathways to reduce global plastic waste mismanagement and greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This paper distills over a year's work from our team with the ultimate goal to inform and inspire decision-makers on the global stage during the UN Plastics Treaty process.

Check out DSE's latest research on ending plastic pollution in Newsweek. 

The Guardian features DSE's recently-published Science paper on ending plastic pollution.

What: At DSE we combine the power of computing and environmental science with open science principles and a commitment to inclusivity—all towards the purpose of building tangible, replicable, and accessible solutions to environmental problems. 

Join the conversation at "Tech for TEK: Implementing Biodiversity Conservation with AI, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and Indigenous Data Sovereignty" on Monday, October 28 in Cali, Colombia.

EcoTech Connect is a dedicated space for all the UC Berkeley community of researchers of all skill levels to come together and explore the technical best practices shaping environmental science. The primary focus is on reproducible data analysis, cutting-edge methods in environmental research, software engineering, and collaborative programming. By engaging in these discussions, participants will gain insights into the "why" behind these practices, emphasizing the rationale and long-term benefits rather than just the technical steps.

The Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science & Environment at Berkeley (DSE) has three exciting new open opportunities to join our growing team!

Communications Manager

The Communications Manager will help to clearly and effectively share our work with a variety of audiences including stakeholders, funders, researchers, students, and the wider community. 

Data Visualization Developer

We are happy to share our 2023 annual report that highlights a foundational year for the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science & Environment and the work we are engaged in.

The Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science & Environment (DSE) at UC Berkeley, along with an opportunity from our partners in the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Center for Large Landscape Conservation, is accepting applications for multiple postdoc positions from recent PhDs in environmental science and/or data science fields interested in providing domain specific research that informs the development of data enabled solutions to our most pressing environmental challenges. 

A new editorial from the Washington Post features DSE's research on ending global plastic pollution.

Sam Pottinger spent years turning the latest advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning into models and dashboards that supported decision-making at Silicon Valley technology companies. At UC Berkeley, he's building those kinds of tools to turn quality environmental science into accessible, actionable information.

The research is clear, plastic pollution has become a global crisis, with 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic waste produced by 2015 (Geyer et al. 2017).  Often research alone is hard to put into a usable form for action, but we identified a clear path to make a difference. The Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science & Environment at Berkeley (Schmidt DSE) teamed up with University of Santa Barbara researchers to build a bridge from a research model to an interactive data visualization tool that can be used by policymakers to form laws on global plastic.

Inviting those engaging in any capacity with the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) on Plastic Pollution to join a webinar sharing first key insights from a research program evaluating the impact that specific policies contained in the INC zero draft could have on curbing plastic pollution.

Free and open to graduate students and postdocs in any environmental discipline, the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science & Environment (DSE) and partners are thrilled to host Dr. Carlie Wiener, Director of Communications, Schmidt Ocean Institute and a panel of science communication experts for two free science storytelling for impact workshops on October 17 or 18th.

DSE began as a broad vision to utilize data for making a positive impact on environmental challenges. Our funders and founding team were united by an optimism for our planet's health and the pressing need to use everything at our disposal to counter our climate uncertain future. They saw a clear path to leverage current research and expertise and use data to uncover insights for action. Underlying our efforts are open practices - open data, open science, and open source to create work that can be transparent, scalable, easily accessible, and designed with community support.

We are thrilled to welcome the team that will be driving our programs, data, and engineering at the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science and Environment (DSE)!
 

Each individual brings great talent, expertise and a passion for our mission. We are excited to have them onboard to design and implement open tools and data critical to improving the wellbeing of our planet and our communities.
 

As we move forward, we will work openly and share new findings, prototypes, and more, so stay tuned!
 

We are excited to share that the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science and Environment at Berkeley (DSE) has named Kevin Koy as Executive Director where he is now working to enable the Center’s mission to develop impactful computational solutions to the challenges facing our environment.

A new research center at the University of California, Berkeley, funded by alumni Eric and Wendy Schmidt, will tackle major environmental challenges including climate change and biodiversity loss by combining data science and environmental science.