The Cooperative Institute for Climate Science (CICS) was founded in 2003 to foster research collaborations between Princeton University and the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). According to its mission statement:

CICS aims to be a world leader in understanding and predicting climate and the co-evolution of society and the environment – integrating the physical, chemical, biological, technological, economic, social and ethical dimensions of climate change – and in training the next generations to deal with the increasing complexity of these issues.

CICS is built upon the strengths of Princeton University in biogeochemistry, physical oceanography, paleoclimate, hydrology, ecosystem ecology, climate change mitigation
technology, economics and policy; and those of GFDL in modeling the atmosphere, oceans, weather and climate. CICS is an outgrowth of a highly successful forty-year collaboration between Princeton University’s Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (AOS) Program and GFDL that contributed to the development of oceanic and atmospheric models, performed research on climate and biogeochemical cycling and educated several generations of postdoctoral researchers and graduate students. The establishment of CICS enhances and extends this long-term partnership by incorporating Princeton University faculty affiliated with the interdisciplinary Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI), thereby augmenting its expertise in the sciences, engineering and policy and facilitating new research collaborations.

A PRINCETON UNIVERSITY AND GEOPHYSICAL FLUID DYNAMICS LABORATORY COLLABORATION