Institute for Innovative Climate Solutions

Find a climate solution. Be a climate solution.

All things climate at the University of Idaho.

The Institute for Innovative Climate Solutions (ICS) is a multidisciplinary, collaborative research program housed at the University of Idaho and supported by the Office of Research and Economic Development. We see ourselves as the epicenter of all convergent research involving climate change at the university. Our researchers,projects, and partners are united around one common goal: to mitigate and reverse climate change impacts on Earth and its inhabitants through integrated and innovative solutions.

Team

Dr. Tara Hudiburg

Director

Dr. Hudiburg is an Associate Professor in the College of Natural Resources at the University of Idaho. She is an internationally recognized expert in climate and carbon cycle science and the recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers – the highest honor awarded to early career scientists from the White House. Dr. Hudiburg is the director of the University of Idaho Institute for Innovative Climate Solutions (ICS) and the principal investigator of over $4 million in competitive grant funding.

Dr. Kristina Bartowitz

Associate Director

Kristina Bartowitz, PhD is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Forest, Rangeland, and Fires Sciences at the University of Idaho. She has over a decade of experience working in western U.S. forests and agricultural lands, with expertise in climate, wildfire, and management impacts on ecosystem dynamics and carbon cycling and interests in science policy and community engagement. She received her PhD in Natural Resources from the University of Idaho, and her BS and MS from the University of Wisconsin. She currently leads ecosystem ecology and modeling projects and assessments of management impacts on ecosystem carbon and other co-benefits to determine if practices are truly climate smart.

Dr. Eric Walsh

Research Scientist II

Eric Walsh is the Climate Smart Land Network (CSLN) Program Director at Manomet, Inc. and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Idaho. Before working for Manomet, he was a Climate Change Specialist with the Nez Perce Tribe addressing climate change vulnerabilities, specifically focusing on developing pathways towards climate-smart agriculture adoption. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Idaho, researching the interactive effects of climate change and forest management on carbon cycling and species niche responses in the Northern Rockies. In addition to research, he was a business coach for E-Myth and started, grew, and sold a business.

Danielle Berardi

Research Scientist I / Project Manager

Bio coming soon

Beatrice Ndinda

Program Implementation Specialist

Bio coming soon