The director of the Columbia Water Center and 60 other honorees were commemorated in a ceremony and reception at the 2017 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting on Wednesday.

AIDS and malaria epidemics receive much attention from international health organizations, but a sneakier killer is on the loose in Africa. Air pollution may now be the continent’s number one killer, according to a forthcoming study.

Columbia scientists are unraveling the driving forces of one of the worst environmental disasters in human history, in hopes of predicting and preparing for the next global drought.

“Alex Halliday is a renowned research scientist and skillful academic leader who is uniquely suited to charting the Institute’s future and its vital interdisciplinary role at the University," said President Lee C. Bollinger.

Billy D’Andrea, a Columbia climate scientist and Center for Climate and Life Fellow, is trying to understand Easter Island’s climate history over the last few thousand years and how communities dealt with past climate change.