Research focuses on insect pheromones and odor-mediated behavior; neuroethological studies of olfaction; identification and development of insect attractants for IPM systems and development of olfaction-based biosensors.

Research interests include environmental and sustainability ethics and philosophy of sustainability research

Research interests include energy and electric power systems, network and graph theory, regulatory economics, antitrust and competition policy, industrial organization, and the economics of infrastructure.

Boyer's research explores hydrological and ecological processes that affect water quality (e.g., nutrients, metals, and sediments) and water quantity (e.g., streamflow and water yield) issuing from watersheds.

Researches the relationship between human behavior and environmental quality, particularly the interaction between human and aquatic systems.

Wetland restoration, reference wetland monitoring protocols, wetland ecological indictor modeling, constructed wetlands, and habiatat modeling.

Brown has written about and lectured extensively on climate change issues over the last 20 years.  He has lectured on climate change issues at 30 universities in eight countries and lectured on sustainability issues in 23 countries

Chen's research interests include bioenergy, catalytic conversion of biomass, and nanomaterials for energy applications

Davis's general projects are directed towards determining the etiology of hardwood tree diseases, as well as understanding the temporal progression of disease using tree-ring analysis.

Studies the relevance of the atmospheric boundary layer to climate, atmospheric chemistry, biogeochemical cycles and the hydrologic cycle.

Brian Dempsey
Professor of Environmental Engineering

Aquatic chemistry with an emphasis on solid-liquid interfacial phenomena; Inorganic coagulants and coagulation processes; Microfiltration for potable water and wastewater; Treatment of acid mine drainage; and Chemistry of iron, aluminum, and trace metals.

Research interests include tochastic and numerical modeling of groundwater flow and solute transport, modeling large-scale hydrologic systems.

Joins Penn State with twenty-two years of industry experience with United Technologies Research Center. Focus is on defining, characterizing and quantifying enclosed space air quality issues, as well as system constraints imposed on potential air treatment/filtration solutions.

Research focuses on the molecular mechanisms and signaling pathways that regulate progression of squamous tumors from a benign to malignant phenotype. Gaining an understanding the signaling pathways controlling squamous tumor progression is critical to develop new therapeutic strategies.

My research focuses on the characterization and numerical simulation of hydrologic processes and associated biogeochemical cycling. Much of my past and current research has included simulation of introduced and natural tracer transport.

Research interests include soil and water conservation engineering, runoff and sediment transport processes, watershed hydrology, and GIS applications.

Research and teaching interests include all aspects of polymeric materials, polymer micro- and nano-structure, transport characterization, electrochemistry, and new materials for energy applications.

Research integrates ideas from a number of different fields, most notably evolutionary genetics, virology and the ecology of infectious disease. Current focus: RNA virus study systems in evolutionary genetics, comparative genomics, and molecular epidemiology.

Studies the population dynamics of infectious diseases in wildlife, particularly those of concern to humans and conservation.

Research focus on plant pathogen and insect pest systems as well as the aerial movement of plant pathogens by insect vectors.

Current research focuses on catalytic processes of relevance to alternative energy conversion technologies, and current research concentrates on electro-catalytic systems such as fuel cell electrodes.

Research focus is on feedbacks between terrestrial ecosystems and environmental change. Uses principles of ecology and biogeochemistry to understand the flow and fate of nitrogen at scales ranging from individual microbial processes, to whole ecosystems and landscapes, to regions.

Ties together geosciences and economics in order to understand, detect, and predict changes in the oceanic carbon cycle and circulation and to develop economically sound policies to control atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Klaiber's research broadly falls within the fields of environmental and natural resource economics. To date a large portion of my research has focused on understanding household decisions by linking housing choices to public goods through housing markets.

Todd research interests focus on microbial ecology and evolution.

Research interest focuses on bioenergy production, including biological hydrogen production; and microbial fuel cells.

Research interests include: hydrogen storage in carbon nanomaterials; hydrogen spillover; synthesis of carbon nanofibers and nanotubes; metal oxide catalysis; green chemistry, green engineering, green catalysis; environmental sustainability; and green engineering education.

Research interests include char and coke structure, molecular modeling, and diffusion of molecules in coal structure.

Interested in paleoethnobotany, environmental archaeology, and human ecology, focusing on human use of biotic resources, plant domestication, horticultural systems, and prehistoric landscape dynamics.

Renowned researcher in molecular toxicology and toxicogenomics . Leads research in the areas of drug/xenobiotic metabolism and conducts in vivo experimentation with transgenic models relevant to animal and human health.

Researches climate change and its effects on life history traits and population and community dynamics to improve our understanding of how and why individuals, populations, and communities respond to changes in climate.

Research interersts include regulation of gene expression by oxidative, glycative, and hypertonic stressors; Molecular mechanisms underlying the antioxidant role of selenium; Lipid biochemistry-prostaglandins, leukotrienes, and oxidized fatty acids as nuclear receptor ligands.

Developing innovative management modeling approaches for environmental systems, which effectively utilize data in combination with simulation, optimization, and information technologies.

Innovative research involving microbial processes in drinking water and wastewater treatment systems including molecular biology techniques to the study of microbial ecology in environmental systems.

Developing sustainable strategies for a bio-based economy. Research applies microbial bioconversion technologies to industrial biomass, agricultural byproducts, and manures for energy production and value-added manufacturing.

Research interestst include: heterogeneous catalysis, catalyst design and synthesis, time-resolved FTIR spectroscopy of condensed systems, x-ray absorption spectroscopy (EXAFS, XANES), and reaction mechanisms in nanoscale systems, photocatalysis.

Studies the genomes from related bacteria: host-adapted and free-living species. Interested in the molecular mechanisms that have driven the speciation process from free-living last common ancestors to the obligatory pathogenic species that we see today.

I work at the interface of landscape and ecosystem ecology, focusing on the influence of spatial pattern on ecosystem function. More generally, my research cuts through traditional disciplinary bounds to ask synthetic questions about ecosystem function through space and time.

Research areas include: catalytic fuel processing for clean energy applications such as ultra clean fuels, hydrogen and synthesis gas production, and fuel cell applications; and carbon dioxide CO2 capture and utilization as fuels and chemicals; 3) catalysis for synthesis of value-added chemicals such as shape-selective synthesis of monomers for advanced aromatic polymer materials.

Randy Vander Wal
Associate Professor of Energy and Mineral Engineering

His research expertise includes atomistic-scale simulations of chemical reactions; reactive force fields (ReaxFF); quantum chemistry; combustion reactions; interface chemistry; and organic geochemistry.

His research interests include the design and synthesis of nanostructured functional materials, clean energy technologies including Li batteries and solar cells.

Ties together paleobotany and paleoecology to study the climatic and floristic history of the Western Hemisphere.