Chronicle
of Higher Education: A new applied-research institute,
backed by a consortium of universities led by New York
University and NYU-Poly, is to open in New York City. The
Center
for Urban Science and Progress, which will be located in a
city-owned building in downtown Brooklyn, will focus on the
sustainability challenges facing cities. Renovation of the
building is expected to be completed by the summer of 2017, and
classes will start by September of that year. The center will
eventually include 50 full-time faculty members and
researchers, 30 postdoctoral researchers, 430 master's-level
students, and 100 doctoral students. Theoretical physicist
Steven Koonin has been named as the new director. He has served
as the Department of Energy's undersecretary of science in the
Obama administration, chief scientist of BP, and provost of
Caltech.
Physics Today's David Kramer
interviewed
Koonin last December after he had resigned from DOE.
