R.K. Pachauri

Dr. Pachauri has chaired the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since 2002 and has been director general of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) since 2001. He has been a leader in the global climate policy debate and played a major role in laying the groundwork for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. He accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the IPCC, which shared the honor with former Vice President Al Gore. Under his leadership, TERI has become India’s most prominent center for research and education in the field of sustainable development. He has authored 23 books and more than 100 academic articles, and has held numerous positions at academic and research institutes. In addition to having taught a semester at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies as a Dorothy S. McCluskey Fellow in Conservation, he received an honorary degree from Yale in 2008. That same year, the government of India awarded him the Padma Vibhushan, one of the nation’s highest civilian honors. The Yale Climate and Energy Institure will provide seed grants, support postgraduate study, sponsor conferences and workshops and foster interdisciplinary research spanning from basic atmospheric science to public policy. Nearly 100 Yale scientists, engineers, physicians, social scientists and policy experts are involved in the new enterprise. Initial projects will focus on forecasting climate variability and its impacts on water supplies, studying the spread of infectious diseases, searching for microbial-based alternative fuels, and the science and economics of carbon sequestration.