Code Green
Green initiatives at USC illustrated as a tower with medical, research, office and cooking facilities. (USC Staff Illustration by Ana Cuna)

By upcycling plastics, reducing environmentally harmful anesthesia gases and transforming medical supply chains, the USC health system and health sciences schools are working to shrink health care’s carbon footprint.

Aroussiak Gabrielian’s research and design work reimagines AI
Image courtesy of Aroussiak Gabrielian. Teaching biomorphic form finding with generative AI.

What if artificial intelligence systems were built differently? How might they function if they were modeled not on human intelligence, but rather on plant intelligence?

USC-led CLIMA Center awarded $4.1 million by NIH to study impact of wildfire smoke and extreme heat on human health
Photo shows Night long exposure photograph of the Santa Clarita wildfire (Photo/iStock FrozenShutter).

With a $4.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, USC researchers will characterize climate-related exposures and gaps in adaptation capacity to understand their combined impacts on human health.

Global sustainability pioneer named dean of the USC Price School of Public Policy
Environmental justice leader Christopher Boone will join USC after decades of impactful work supporting the growth of sustainability programs. (Photo/Courtesy of the Arizona State University Provost’s Office)

Christopher Boone joins USC Price after decades of work supporting the growth of sustainability programs in colleges and universities across the country.

What triggered Nepal’s catastrophic 2021 flood – and could it happen again?
Floods in 2021 left much of Melamchi buried in mud and debris. (Photo: GFDRR/Ranjan Kumar Dahal.)

Using cutting-edge technology, USC Dornsife scientists discovered how a deadly combination of factors led to disaster. They hope their research will help identify other regions vulnerable to similar flooding events.

UN climate negotiations end on shaky geopolitical ground, but I see reasons for hope
Officials from countries around the world met in Baku, Azerbaijan, for COP29 in November 2024. (Photo: UN Climate Change via Flickr.)

National leaders may be struggling to agree, but businesses see the economic benefits of clean energy, states are cutting emissions, and people everywhere are more cognizant of their actions.

Newly established Antevy Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fund Empowers the Solution of Grand Challenges Addressed with the Civil and Environmental Engineering Disciplines
Ron and Rachel Antevy

The newly established fund inspires students and faculty at the USC Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) to transform their research into high-impact solutions.

Watching USC Trojans football has never been more sustainable
USC football sustainability: Zero Waste Team

Numerous efforts at USC are underway to ensure football games are as close to zero waste as possible.

Exposure to certain pollution sources harms children’s learning and memory, USC study shows
Young person looking at polluted sky.

The peer-reviewed study contributes to mounting evidence that the fine particulates PM2.5 are detrimental for memory and cognition for people of all ages.

USC Sea Grant receives nearly $2 million from NOAA for novel technology to turn marine debris into laundry detergent and sustainable dyes for the fashion industry
USC Ph.D. students Shayna Kohl (left) and Anvi Surapaneni (right), both from the lab of Professor Travis Williams, carry a discarded tire on Santa Catalina Island, where trash from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch often washes up. Photo credit: Vanessa Codilla

The University of Southern California Sea Grant Program was awarded nearly $2 million to develop a disruptive and sustainable method for upcycling ocean-bound plastic waste across Southern California waterways.