Prologue
CIRES was created as a mechanism by which to bring together the resources of a research-oriented state university and a group of Federal research laboratories for the purpose of developing a center of excellent research in the physical sciences relevant to understanding the Earth, including its atmosphere, waters, solid body, and environment in space. One objective was to promote interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary research aimed at solving scientific problems of the Earth and providing the foundations for the solution of practical problems, ranging from the mitigation of natural disasters to the preservation of environmental
quality. Another important goal for CIRES is the education of scientists at all levels, including undergraduate and graduate students, as well as postdoctoral personnel
-From the CIRES Self-Study Report, November 1983
By the last third of the 20th century thoughtful scientists investigating particular aspects of Earth had come to recognize that the only way to find answers to the big questions about this planet was to consider the narrowly defined issues in the context of Earth as a complex physicalbiological system composed of many interacting parts. The move toward interdisciplinary approaches as a productive way to research fundamental questions of how the Earth works, with the added concern for how the physical environment affects human activities, was born.
In Boulder, Colorado circumstances were especially favorable in the mid-1960s for the establishment of an institute dedicated to interdisciplinary Earth-oriented research. Strong but small programs in applicable physics, geology, and the space and atmospheric sciences existed in University of Colorado departments. Boulder was also the home of the Institutes for Environmental Research (IER) of the Environmental Sciences Service Administration (ESSA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce, both soon to be reorganized and renamed the Environmental Research Laboratories (ERL) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The merger of the strengths of components in a major research university with those of a group of federal laboratories had great potential for the development of a mutually beneficial cooperative research organization devoted to environmental science.
It has been said that a successful enterprise is the lengthened shadow of a few people of vision and determination who worked to create it. This is true of units within an academic framework, in which the continuity of organizational structures, adequate and productive in the past, is often accepted as the best way to confront the future. Willingness to accept modifications or major changes of past practices with optimism and enthusiasm, and to provide the resources needed, is a mark of mature and responsible leadership. CIRES is fortunate that the administrations of the University and of NOAA and ERL have provided that kind of support.
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