One Warming World, One Shared Academic Effort

In August 2025, faculty and students from Tel Aviv University and Dartmouth College met in New Hampshire to think together about a warming and increasingly complex world. The inaugural TAU-Dartmouth Summer School on Complex Systems, Climate & Computing offered an intensive week of discussions centered on how to understand and respond to a rapidly changing Earth.

The school, developed by the Lowy International School, Dartmouth's Neukom Institute, and the Kalaniyot in the Sciences program, brought together researchers from across the natural sciences. Their goal? To examine how climate change is intensifying natural disasters, and how emerging AI tools can help anticipate extreme events and improve preparedness.

Throughout the week, presenters examined the planet's biggest vulnerabilities, including atmospheric circulation, wildfire dynamics, ocean warming, and biodiversity loss. Some sessions extended beyond Earth, considering lessons from other planets to understand the delicate conditions that allow life to thrive.

One theme kept coming up again and again: uncertainty. The discussions focused on how it can be reduced, how it can be communicated clearly, and how climate solutions can be designed to stay robust even as environmental conditions continue to shift.

TAU–Dartmouth Summer School participants

Through real-world case studies, students engaged with research on climate tipping points, risk modeling, data-driven adaptation strategies, and evidence-based approaches to resilience.

The week also included a poster session, where students shared their own research and exchanged ideas directly with faculty around their areas of interest.

The academic program was central, but it was not the whole story. The Summer School also highlighted the value of international partnerships.

“Internationalization is no longer an optional dimension of higher education; it is a core responsibility. Collaborations like this strengthen institutional capacity, expand global impact, and prepare students to lead in a world where global and environmental challenges know no borders.”—Prof. Milette Shamir, Vice President for International Affairs at Tel Aviv University

The partnership between Tel Aviv University and Dartmouth grew from a shared recognition that effective climate action depends on strong international networks across academia and industry.

“This Summer School created a learning community where climate science, computational methods, and policy thinking were integrated. The conversations here will shape future researchers who can navigate complexity with both scientific depth and global awareness.”—Prof. Dan Rockmore, Dartmouth faculty and the Director of the Neukom Institute for Computational Science

TAU’s leading climate researchers stressed that meaningful climate action depends on long-term, trusted alliances.

“We see this partnership as an investment in shared knowledge and shared purpose,” adds Prof. Colin Price, a TAU faculty participant. “When institutions commit to collaborative climate education, they accelerate solutions that benefit communities far beyond their campuses.”

“No single discipline, and certainly no single country, can meet the scale of the climate crisis. When students from different cultures and scientific backgrounds work together, they generate ideas that simply wouldn’t emerge within one institution alone.”—Prof. Eyal Heifetz, TAU faculty lead for the program

As the week wrapped up, students took with them practical skills and a clearer sense of their role in addressing climate challenges. The Summer School underscored the need for global cooperation in this work and the role universities play in advancing it.

TAU–Dartmouth Summer School participants

The TAU–Dartmouth Summer School stands as a model for what such cooperation can look like, rigorous, interdisciplinary, international, and grounded in the belief that scientific collaboration is essential for securing a sustainable future.

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