The Center for the Environment is an interdisciplinary hub of environmental research that is 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.
By the numbers
124
Center scholars
46
Proposals/Grants supported
1000+
Activity participants
150
Journal articles published
in Jan-June 2025
The Center’s mission
The center serves as a cross-cutting collaboration hub, encouraging partners, faculty and students to advance research projects in areas including biodiversity, environmental justice, planetary health, environmental solutions, and climate change. Here’s a closer look at who we are, what we do, and why it matters for our community, our region and our world.
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Featured research & stories
Advancing our mission: Rapid progress, big wins from strategic plan
WashU is recognizing successes while planning for the years ahead.
Can we make drinking water safer?
This WashU program taps into a simple solution using household water filters to monitor and track safety.
ACCESS was a success for WashU Center for the Environment
At a time when advancing research is more challenging than ever, seven environmental research centers, institutes and initiatives from across the country came together to keep environmental progress on track.
The WashU ecosystem
Within the WashU ecosystem of environmental research, education, and practice, the Center for the Environment serves as a connector. Much like a biodiversity corridor, we work to create space where our partners within the ecosystem and across distinct disciplines come together to address our world’s biggest environmental challenges.
In the news
Archaeologists may have uncovered a Bronze Age metropolis in Kazakhstan’s steppe
Upon the open grasslands of what is now Kazakhstan, there once stood a Bronze Age settlement that may have served as a center of exchange and power around 1600 BC.
Missouri: Hungry for Solutions
A Midwest region dominated by agriculture, Missouri is bringing its ecosystem to the next level.
WashU testing soil in tornado impacted areas for lead
From-the-ground-up, Washington University’s CLEAN STL program has started collecting soil samples from areas impacted by May 16th’s tornado.