Lessons for a Warming Planet: A Vital History of U.S. Environmental Law
The relationship between humans and the environment in the United States reflects tales of countless contrasting and overlapping trends, movements, and tensions. Law has cultivated both the planet’s biggest environmental threats and its most creative innovations for protecting human and ecological health. U.S. laws have driven both exploitation and temperance; destruction and restoration; and resistance and adaptation.
Lessons for a Warming Planet showcases the fundamental role the law has served in reckoning with environmental harm in the United States. Authors Alejandro E. Camacho and Brigham Daniels explore the full arc of U.S. environmental legal history across five major periods in the United States, reaching as far back as North America’s colonization and ending with the present. Through this rich history, the book considers the ways leadership, social movements, political coalitions, information, and technologies have both been catalyzed by the law and have advanced environmental change.
Wednesday, September 16, 2026, 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM.
Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy
L. S. Skaggs Applied Science Building, Suite W1204
275 S. University Street, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84112.
2027 Wilkes Climate Innovation Prize (Accepting Submissions)
The Wilkes Climate Innovation Prize seeks bold, high-potential solutions that address significant challenges affecting the climate/energy/economy ecosystem and are positioned to make measurable progress toward real-world use. The Prize is designed to support solutions at a stage where uncertainty remains high, conventional funding or adoption pathways are limited, and targeted support can plausibly influence outcomes. Solutions may be technological, policy-driven, operational, financial, or hybrid. Applicants may be for-profit or nonprofit organizations, academic teams, public-sector innovators, or mission-driven collaborations from anywhere in the world.
Wednesday, September 23, 2026 – Friday, November 20, 2026.
https://wilkescenter.utah.edu/prize/.
For more info visit wilkescenter.utah.edu. Wilkes Climate Innovation Prize Announcement Watch Party
Join us for a Watch Party for the live announcement of the 2026 Wilkes Climate Innovation Prize, awarding $250,000 to an innovator whose breakthrough has the potential to significantly advance climate innovation. Learn about the winning innovator and gain an inside look at the breakthrough technology, the science behind it, and its potential to transform the future of climate action.
Wednesday, September 23rd 4:00 to 6:00 PM at the Wilkes Center (LSSB W1204)
Light hors d'oeuvres and refreshments to be served.
Please RSVP.
Immediately following the award announcement, XPRIZE will host a conversation with leaders who are redefining what's possible through incentive competitions.
Panelists will include:Shantanu Agarwal, Founder & CEO of Mati Carbon, winner of the $100 million XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition; The newly announced Wilkes Climate Innovation Prize winner; David Cumming, philanthropist and benefactor of both the Wilkes Climate Center Prize and XPRIZE; Elaine Hungenberg, SVP of Partnerships &…
Wednesday, September 23, 2026, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM.
Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy (L. S. Skaggs Applied Science Building, Suite W1204, 275 S. University Street, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84112).
For more info visit wilkescenter.utah.edu. Student Innovation Prize (Accepting Submissions)
Information to be posted soon.
Monday, October 12, 2026 – Friday, February 19, 2027.
Website to be updated soon.
Wilkes Scholars Program - SPRING 2027 DEADLINE
The Wilkes Scholars Program (WSP) enables outstanding undergraduate students to explore pressing climate challenges facing our state, region, and planet through transformative research. Wilkes Scholars will work with a mentor to advance research related to the mission of the Wilkes Center for Climate Science and Policy — catalyzing innovative science and solutions to address climate change.
Friday, October 30, 2026.
https://wilkescenter.utah.edu/funding-opportunities/wilkes-scholars/.
For more info visit wilkescenter.utah.edu. Graduate JD Fellowship applications due
The Wilkes JD Fellowship is a new initiative in partnership with the S.J. Quinney College of Law’s Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources and the Environment supporting law students at the University of Utah who are committed to addressing climate, energy, and environmental challenges through legal and policy scholarship and work.
Friday, November 13, 2026.
https://wilkescenter.utah.edu/funding-opportunities/jd-fellowship/.
For more info visit wilkescenter.utah.edu. Graduate Dissertation Fellowship (Application Portal Open)
The Wilkes Dissertation Fellowship supports the dissertation writing phase for Ph.D. candidates whose dissertation projects focus around the broad themes of climate science and climate policy.
Applicants can apply for 1 or 2 semesters of support to complete a research-based dissertation-required Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree. Funds are intended to support the final semesters of writing and defense of the dissertation. This award is non-renewable.
Wilkes Dissertation Fellowships are open to applicants from any Ph.D. program as long as the focus of the dissertation project is in the area of climate science or climate policy.
Sunday, November 15, 2026 – Friday, January 15, 2027.
https://wilkescenter.utah.edu/funding-opportunities/dissertation-fellowship/.
For more info visit wilkescenter.utah.edu. Postdoctoral Fellowship (Application Portal Open)
This postdoctoral scholar program will help create the next generation of leaders in climate science and policy. It endeavors to attract spectacular recent PhDs in sciences that address studies with relevance to the Wilkes Center climate research and climate policy goals.
Postdoctoral scholars will perform cutting-edge and impactful research in climate science and/or policy , with particular priority areas on data informed climate forecasting, wildfire and climate extremes such as heat waves, droughts, and floods, climate impacts on local communities, economies, ecosystems, and human health, and the development of tools to mitigate, adapt, and manage climate impacts. These can include analysis of past, current, or possible future climate variability and change as well as the study of the underlying social, physical, chemical, and biological processes.
Tuesday, December 1, 2026 – Monday, February 15, 2027.
https://wilkescenter.utah.edu/funding-opportunities/wilkes-center-postdoctoral-program/.
For more info visit wilkescenter.utah.edu.