The University’s Center for the Environment will give greenbacks to green initiatives as part of a new fellowship program started this year.

Seven were named to the first class of fellows on May 3.

The fellows, whose fields of interest range from the mercury cycle and conservation biology to the development of cleaner fuel cells, will each work on research for the next two years with a member of the Harvard faculty.

Richard A. Minard Jr., the center’s executive director, said the center has wanted to create a fellowship program since it was founded 10 years ago.

“About two years ago the center received a large gift and that made it possible to do this,” he said. “It is a combination of ability and a longstanding desire to support postdoctoral work in this field.”

One new fellow, David M. Thompson, received his doctorate in physics from Harvard last year. He plans to work with Assistant Professor of Climate Science Zhiming Kuang. Thompson will use his background in theoretical physics and string theory to explore the relationship between global warming and hurricanes by modeling air currents.

“Personally I’m honored to have been selected,” Thompson said. “My background has been very theoretical, very mathematical, but I’ve always had an interest in global warming and these issues.”

He explained that, in the process of looking at what he could do with his skills, he realized he could make a difference in the field of atmospheric physics.

“For decades now the range of estimated temperature increases has been between one and a half and four and a half degrees Celsius,” he said. “Part of that uncertainty is to do with water vapor.”

“It interests me and allows me to make a contribution to [fighting] what I think is the biggest threat to the planet,” Thompson said.

Another fellow with a physics doctorate from Harvard, Alex Johnson, will work in the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences with Assistant Professor Shriram Ramanathan, developing technologies that will hopefully aid a shift from oil-based to hydrogen-based energy.

“[The fellows] are scattered through the university,” said Minard. “There is a fairly wide array of topics.”

The other five fellows are Peter Alagona, a doctoral candidate in history at the University of California-Los Angeles; Nicole S. Downey, who is finishing a doctorate in environmental science and engineering at the California Institute of Technology; Peter Huybers, a former Army tank platoon leader with a doctorate in climate physics and chemistry from MIT; Valeriy Ivanov, an MIT-trained hydrologist; and Roxanne Willis ’97, a doctoral candidate at Yale who specializes in environmental history and literature.

—Staff writer Alexandra C. Bell can be reached at acbell@fas.harvard.edu