Inauguration of the Joy and Edward Frieman Environmental Science Center

Last month, The American University of Paris held an official ceremony to inaugurate the Joy and Edward Frieman Environmental Science Center in the Student Life Center on the fourth floor of the Combes building. The ground-breaking new center supports cutting edge research on evolutionary biology and the impacts of climate change on natural systems. AUP professors Claudio Piani and Elena Berg direct the Frieman Center. Professor Piani currently researches climate modelling and bias correction, while Professor Berg is an evolutionary biologist, focusing on animal behavior. In heading the Frieman Center, Professors Piani and Berg combine academics with a pragmatic approach, directly involving AUP students in their laboratory research.

The Frieman Center offers two state-of-the-art climate chambers that maintain precise conditions of temperature, humidity, and daylight. In April 2014, Edward Frieman, Trustee Emeritus, passed away before receiving an honorary degree from the University later that May. AUP President Celeste Schenck officated the inauguration in the presence of Joy Frieman and family.