Fulbright scholar to spend semester studying urban climate effects in Greece
For most people, the thought of Greece may elicit images of sandy beaches and beautiful buildings cascading toward the shore, but for Senior Sustainability Scientist Matei Georgescu, Greece means the opportunity to expand his research into the effects urbanization has on climate. To help him accomplish this, Georgescu has been awarded the prestigious Fulbright Scholar Grant.
“A key objective of my Fulbright Award is focused on development of high-resolution data of climate output illustrating the magnitude of future extreme heat events for all of Greece,” said Georgescu, an associate professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning and affiliated faculty in Arizona State University's Center for Biodiversity Outcomes.
This is an opportunity for Georgescu to expand the work he has been focused on at ASU. As a member of the university’s Urban Climate Research Center, Georgescu has dedicated a significant portion of his research to investigating environmental impacts, specifically climate, as it relates to the built environment. This work in Greece will provide Georgescu with the opportunity to work alongside the Remote Sensing Lab (RSL) within the Institute of Applied and Computational Mathematics at the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas in Crete — one of the premier research centers in Europe.
Georgescu will be headed to Crete in the spring of 2020 to start his Fulbright-sponsored research, which will last for four months. He will be added to the ranks of distinguished past participants of the program, including Nobel Laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, MacArthur Fellows and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients. According to the organization, more than 380,000 “Fulbrighters” have participated in the program since its inception in 1946.