The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s sustainability-focused hiring and research initiative will have a new home at the Wisconsin Energy Institute led by professor of plant and agroecosystem sciences Chris Kucharik.
The RISE-EARTH initiative is one of several hiring and research priorities from campus administration across disciplines like artificial intelligence and human health.
The RISE-EARTH headquarters will focus on fostering interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers, undergraduate and graduate students, businesses and community organizations to advance its goals of reimagining economic and environmental systems and constructing sustainable energy systems.
Kucharik plans to prioritize in-person interaction to build rapport and personal connections, allowing for better quality brainstorming and, ultimately, project proposals.
“I'm very much a believer of getting people in a room together to talk and exchange ideas,” he told The Daily Cardinal.
Kucharik hopes efforts from RISE-EARTH initiatives will culminate in the university being viewed as a global leader for carrying out interdisciplinary research while also educating its students in an interdisciplinary way.
Kucharik completed his PhD in atmospheric sciences at UW-Madison in 1997 and has been on campus professionally since then. He said he plans to draw on his familiarity with the community to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration.
“[UW-Madison is] a big place. It's not often easy to know exactly who's here, who's doing what and what areas of specialty are found here,” Kucharik said. “It can make it difficult to know exactly where to go for collaborators, so the whole effort with the HQ is to help foster collaboration.”
Kucharik’s research centers on understanding how climate change and land management affect the provisioning of ecosystem goods and services. Currently, he is directing a team in developing a mesonet — named the Wisconet — which is a statewide network of weather stations providing weather data to farmers.
He is a mentor for an inaugural recipient of the UW Distinguished Research Fellowship, which is affiliated with RISE-EARTH, and is himself the recipient of an OVCR Research Forward proposal for agrivoltaics — studying the effectiveness of incorporating solar panels on agricultural land.
For students, Kucharik said this announcement means the forthcoming availability of new courses centering RISE themes they can enroll in, more opportunities to get involved in cutting-edge sustainability research and the ability to connect with diverse teams focused on interdisciplinary problem solving.
The RISE-EARTH initiative was initially announced by Mnookin in April 2024 at a kick-off celebration for Earth Fest on campus following the creation of RISE-AI.
“By investing in the next generation of faculty leaders through RISE-EARTH, UW-Madison will be well poised to make even greater contributions to sustainability research, education and problem-solving in the world,” Mnookin said in a statement on the RISE-EARTH website.
This announcement follows the launch of the RISE-AI HQ and coining Data Science Institute Director Kyle Cranmer as its lead in September 2025.
