TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Dr. Duane T. Johnson, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering at The University of Alabama, was recently named director of the Southeast Regional Center for the National Institute for Global Environmental Change, headquartered at UA.

As director, Johnson will manage the multimillion dollar institutional climate change research program for the U.S. Department of Energy. Numerous investigators at seven major universities across the Southeast are working on projects, from predicting ecosystem response to environmental change, in connection with the center.

“My goals for the program include leveraging funding and continuing to improve the understanding of climate change and its effects on the environment through fundamental science and educational programs,” said Johnson.

Johnson, with UA since 1998, received a doctorate from the University of Florida and a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from Michigan State University.

The National Institute for Global Environmental Change is divided into six regions within the United States to better study environmental change on different geographical and geological systems. Each regional center develops their own research programs by soliciting proposals from scholars around the nation. The Southeast Regional Center includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands Territory.

In 1837, UA became the first university in the state to offer engineering classes and was one of the first five in the nation to do so. The College of Engineering, with about 1,900 students and more than 95 faculty, is one of the three oldest continuously operating engineering programs in the country and has been fully accredited since accreditation standards were implemented in the 1930s.