The Center for the Environment is organized around four interconnected research themes and one foundational, cross-cutting theme. The most complex environmental challenges and the most exciting research needs are at the intersections of these themes.
Research themes
Addressing societal challenges
We are committed to generating transformative solutions to our deepest societal challenges including: climate change, air pollution, access to clean water, food insecurity, biodiversity loss and infectious diseases.
Summer Undergraduate Research
At WashU, undergraduate students have the opportunity to spend the summer conducting research alongside principal investigators, graduate students, and peers – working to address environmental challenges in an interdisciplinary cohort.
Research Facilities
WashU has a variety of available research facilities. Find out how they might support your work.
Featured research & stories
Scientists find new way global air churn makes particles
Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered a new mechanism by which particles are formed around the globe, often high up in the troposphere.
Archaeologists report earliest evidence for plant farming in east Africa
WashU archaeologist Natalie Mueller and her collaborators have uncovered the earliest evidence for plant farming in east Africa.
Early, Losos elected members of American Philosophical Society
Gerald Early, professor in Arts & Sciences, and Jonathan B. Losos, professor in Arts & Sciences, director of the Living Earth Collaborative, and director for biodiversity at the Center, have been elected members of the American Philosophical Society.