Novim is a non-profit group at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

that organizes teams for objective scientific study of global issues and identification options for addressing the concerns, based upon a collaborative problem-solving approach used in the field of physics.

Overview

The group was formed at the University of California campus in Santa Barbara to create a collaborative problem-solving approach to address widespread and complicated problems, modeled after approaches at the

Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics The Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) is a research institute of the University of California, Santa Barbara. KITP is one of the most renowned institutes for theoretical physics in the world, and brings theorists in physics and rela ...

(KITP). Novim organizes study teams of scientists, researchers, and area experts to evaluate issues like climate engineering, global surface temperatures, and methane leakages in

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

production. Their criteria for issue selection is that it must be "highly complex, controversial and global." They partner with governmental organizations, like the Department of Energy and Office of Science, to engage them in the process, share findings and discuss potential actions. Jim Knight is Novim's executive vice president and Michael Ditmore is its executive director, both of whom are Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) Director's Council members.

Advisory board

* Aristides Patrinos, Chief Scientist, Director of Research and Chair of the Science Advisory Board, Novim *Henry Abarbanel, Research Director Science and Security at IGCC *Elbert Branscomb, Department of Physics, University of Illinois Biocomplexity research theme member, Institute for Genomic Biology *Michelle Broido, Associate Vice Chancellor for Biomedical Research, Office of Research, Health Sciences, University of Pittsburgh *

Juan Enriquez ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, t ...

, Managing Director, Excel Venture Management, bestselling author, Co-Founder, Synthetic Genomics and multiple start-ups *Jack Fellows, Director Emeritus, Climate Change Science Institute,

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a U.S. multiprogram science and technology national laboratory sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and administered, managed, and operated by UT–Battelle as a federally funded research and ...

*David J. Galas, Principal Scientist, Pacific Northwest Research Institute *

Steven E. Koonin Steven Elliot Koonin (born December 12, 1951) is an American theoretical physicist and former director of the Center for Urban Science and Progress at New York University. He is also a professor in the Department of Civil and Urban Engineering at ...

, Founding Director of the NYU Center for Urban Science & Progress, Brooklyn, NY *Greg Mitchell, Professor Emeritus, Integrative Oceanography Division,

Scripps Institution of Oceanography The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (sometimes referred to as SIO, Scripps Oceanography, or Scripps) in San Diego, California, US founded in 1903, is one of the oldest and largest centers for oceanography, ocean and Earth science research ...

, San Diego CA * Venkatesh Narayanamurti, Former Dean, Harvard School of Engineering & Applied Science *Edward Schulak, Philanthropist, architect, entrepreneur, inventor, international business leader as well as the founder, financier and director of nine life science companies *Gerry Stokes, Research Professor Stony Brook University

Projects

Geoengineering Study

They first studied the changes in the Earth's average surface temperature and published their findings in 2009 in the ''Climate Engineering Study Group'' report. They found that there was a need to use

geoengineering Climate engineering (also called geoengineering) is a term used for both carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and solar radiation management (SRM), also called solar geoengineering, when applied at a planetary scale.IPCC (2022Chapter 1: Introduction and F ...

to lower the Earth's average temperature and suggested adopting the principles of short wave climate engineering (SWCE) to introduce aerosols into the stratosphere. Much like the sulfur particles released by large volcanic eruptions, the aerosols would reflect shortwave solar radiation back into space to cool the air and land below.Climate intervention: what we need to know to respond to a climate emergency
/ref> Although SWCE may help reverse global warming, the technique remains untested and potential adverse effects are unknown, and therefore could not be mitigated. Opponents have stated that the core causes are not addressed, only the symptoms, and that SWCE would damage the ozone. Novim collected an international team of scientists to work together on the study, which was performed on a small scale to make options available as soon as reasonably possible. They determined that the cost to deploying the methods described in the study would be about US$8 billion per year if delivered by aircraft.

Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) Study

Novim's second study was the

Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Berkeley Earth is a Berkeley, California-based independent 501(c)(3) non-profit focused on land temperature data analysis for climate science. Berkeley Earth was founded in early 2010 (originally called the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature pro ...

Study (BEST), released 29 July 2012. The study reanalyzes the world's land temperature data following the

Climatic Research Unit email controversy The Climatic Research Unit email controversy (also known as "Climategate") began in November 2009 with the hacking of a server at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA) by an external attacker, copying thousa ...

. Professor

Richard A. Muller Richard A. Muller (born January 6, 1944) is an American physicist and emeritus professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. He was also a faculty senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In early 2010, M ...

led the study team that included 2011

Nobel Prize in Physics ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...

winner Saul Perlmutter.

Methane Leakage

Methane Leakage - Novim has assembled a team of scientific and technical experts to analyze existing studies of the emissions profile of natural gas during the production and distribution phases, with a focus on determining a range of actual methane leakage rates. Probable causes for the leakage will be included, and proposed solutions will be examined, along with associated costs.

Overview

Advisory board

Projects

Geoengineering Study

Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) Study

Methane Leakage

See also

Notes

References

External links