After three years as the founding director of the Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy at the University of Utah, William Anderegg, professor in the School of Biological Sciences, will step down as the center’s director on June 30th.

Fielding Norton, a venture investor with a climate background, will lead the center’s overall strategy and operations as managing director, while John Lin, a University of Utah atmospheric sciences professor, will oversee the center’s research initiatives and academic programs.

“It has been an incredible privilege to launch the Wilkes Center and guide it through these foundational years,” said Anderegg. “I remain deeply optimistic about addressing climate challenges, and that optimism is fueled by the remarkable work of our faculty, students, and team. They continue to inspire me with their innovative research and commitment to developing real-world climate solutions.”

A solid foundation for climate innovation

Under Anderegg’s leadership, the Wilkes Center positioned the U as a state, national and international leader in science-based climate solutions. Created in 2022 and founded by Clay and Marie Wilkes, the center was designed to promote research, inform public policy and support entrepreneurial solutions to the challenges that climate change poses to society and ecosystems.

Among its major accomplishments, the center launched the annual international Wilkes Climate Prize and several annual events including the Climate Solutions Hackathon for students, the Wilkes Climate Summit and a public speaker series. The center also supported the hires of new climate-focused faculty across campus as well as the creation of the Great Salt Lake Strike Team, a task force designed to inform strategies to increase the lake’s water level, extending its influence beyond the U campus.

Anderegg’s deep expertise in climate change impacts on forests and society in the western U.S. and around the world helped steer the center’s focus during its initial years. He oversaw nation-wide collaborations to develop policy recommendations for nature-based climate solutions, which included partnerships with Microsoft, among others.

“I’m excited to continue and expand our research at the science-policy interface, particularly around the climate risks to forests and society of wildfire, drought, and other disturbances,” Anderegg said.

“It has been an incredible privilege to launch the Wilkes Center and guide it through these foundational years. I remain deeply optimistic about addressing climate challenges, and that optimism is fueled by the remarkable work of our faculty, students, and team. They continue to inspire me with their innovative research and commitment to developing real-world climate solutions.”
~ William Anderegg

Anderegg’s tenure as director solidified his reputation as a world-renowned climate scientist. In 2023, he was awarded both the National Science Foundation’s Alan T. Waterman Award and the Blavatnik Foundation’s National Laureate in Life Sciences award for his work on forest ecosystems and climate change. Anderegg was also recognized as one of the world’s most highly cited researchers by Clarivate.

Anderegg will be remembered not only for his own research and his expert convening of climate innovators but his skill at communicating science to a wide variety of audiences. He demonstrated this routinely, whether as a moderator of a panel on Utah’s energy future, crafting the messaging of center publications or, each year, insightfully framing the annual Wilkes Summit as a forum for thoughtful, real-life, real-time solutions to one of the defining issues of our time. In his final Summit appearance, for example, he memorably summarized the “three pillars of urgency” related to climate change: “it’s here, it’s us, it’s damaging.”

Anderegg’s signature of conveying data-driven science in a concise and clear way continually resonated with academics, industry leaders and policy makers alike.

“Bill’s leadership of the Wilkes Center has inspired so many young science scholars and future innovators across the University of Utah,” said Pearl Sandick, dean of the College of Science. “We are grateful for his leadership for helping launch the center and we’re excited to see what new research projects and partnerships will emerge in the coming years.”

This story originally appeared on the Wilkes Center website here.