Sustainability Research
Sustainability research leads to a deeper understanding of the conditions that facilitate a balance of economic prosperity, social wellbeing, and ecological health. Sustainability research focuses on a key principle of sustainability (such as social equity or environmental stewardship); addresses a sustainability challenge (such as climate change or poverty); or furthers our understanding of the interconnectedness of societal and environmental challenges.
Faculty participating in sustainability-related research by department:
African and African-American Studies
Anthropology
Architecture
Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
Chemistry
Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Economics
French and Italian
Geography
Geology
History
Information and Telecommunications Technology Center (ITTC)
Journalism and Mass Communications
Kansas Biological Survey
Law School
Mechanical Engineering
Molecular Biosciences
Physics and Astronomy
Public Administration
Sociology
Urban Planning
African and African-American Studies:
Garth Myers (Professor)
African and African-American Studies
Research Interests: African sustainable development and urban planning
Email: gmyers@ku.edu
Web: http://www2.ku.edu/~afs/faculty_staff/people/garth_myers.shtml
Brent Metz (Assistant Professor)
Socio-Cultural Anthropology
Research Interests: Indigeneity, indigenous reformulation, culture and power, collective memory, ethnographic representation, masculinity, family planning, and environmental degradation
Email: bmetz@ku.edu
Web: http://www2.ku.edu/~kuanth/people/faculty_metz.shtml
Jane Gibson (Associate Professor)
Socio-Cultural Anthropology
Research Interests: Cultural anthropology, political ecology, economic anthropology, natural resource management, tourism and development, visual anthropology
Email: jwgc@ku.edu
Web: http://www2.ku.edu/~kuanth/people/faculty_gibson.shtml
Shannon Criss (Associate Professor, Curriculum Coordinator)
Architecture
Research Interests: Sustainable Design, Community Design, Recycled-Content Architectural Products
Email: scriss@ku.edu
Web: http://www.saup.ku.edu/People/ArchFaculty/ShannonCriss/CrissS.shtml
Chemical and Petroleum Engineering:
Kyle Camarda (Associate Professor)
Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
Research Interests: high-performance computers to solve optimization problems in product design, process design and bioinformatics
Email: camarda@ku.edu
Web: http://www.cpe.engr.ku.edu/people/camarda.html
Raghunath
V. Chaudhari (Deane E. Ackers Distinguished Professor)
Chemical and Petroleum Engineering and The Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis
Research Interests: Multiphase Catalysis & Reaction Engineering, Homogeneous & Heterogeneous Catalysis, Kinetic Modeling and Immobilization of metal complexes
Email: rvc1948@ku.edu
Web: http://www.cpe.engr.ku.edu/people/chaudhari.html
Javier Guzman (Assistant Professor)
Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
Research Interests: Nanotechnology, Advanced Materials, Catalysis, Kinetics, and Reaction Engineering, Green Chemistry and Engineering, Charaterization of Solids by Spectroscopic Techniques, Synchrotron Radiation Applied to Nanomaterials
Email: jguzman@ku.edu
Web: http://www.cpe.engr.ku.edu/people/guzman.html
Jenn-Tai Liang (Associate Professor and Co-Director)
Chemical and Petroleum Engineering and The Tertiary Oil Recovery Project
Research Interests: Reservoir Engineering, Secondary and Tertiary Oil Recovery, CO2 Sequestration in Geologic Formations, Coalbed Methane Recovery
Email: jtliang@ku.edu
Web: http://www.torp.ku.edu/people/liang.html
Aaron Scurto (Assistant Professor)
Chemical and Petroleum Engineering and the Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis
Research Interests: Chemo-Enzymatic Catalysis - Asymmetric/Enantioselective Catalysis, Nano-scale Materials Production and Processing in Supercritical Fluids, Green/Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, and High-Pressure Phase Behavior & Modeling
Email: gmyers@ku.edu
Web: http://www2.ku.edu/~afs/faculty_staff/people/garth_myers.shtml
Susan Stagg-Williams (Associate Professor)
African and African-American Studies
Research Interests: fabrication of selective oxygen permeable membrane reactors, production of biodiesel, production of synthesis gas (autothermal reforming), and production of Hydrogen (CO oxidation / LTWGS)
Email: smwilliams@ku.edu
Web: http://www.cpe.engr.ku.edu/people/stagg-williams.html
Bala Subramaniam (Dan F. Servey Distinguished Professor)
Director, Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis
Research Interests: Catalytic Reaction Engineering for Sustainable Energy and Chemicals Production; Exploiting Supercritical and Gas-Expanded Liquids in Crystallization and Benign Chemicals Processing
Email: bsubramaniam@ku.edu
Web: http://www.cpe.engr.ku.edu/people/subramaniam.html
Laurence Weatherley (Professor and Chair)
Chemical and Petroleum Engineering and the Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis
Research Interests: Liquid-liquid systems and intensification, enzymatic catalysis, ion exchange and adsorption
Email: lweather@ku.edu
Web: http://www2.ku.edu/~afs/faculty_staff/people/garth_myers.shtml
G. Paul Willhite (Ross H. Forney Distinguished Professor)
Chemical and Petroleum Engineering and Co-Director, Tertiary Oil Recovery Project
Research Interests: Enhanced and improved oil recovery processes, Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide in oil and gas reservoirs, transport processes in porous media
Email: willhite@ku.edu
Web: http://www.cpe.engr.ku.edu/people/willhite.html and Tertiary Oil Recovery Project (TORP)
Mikhail Barybin (Associate Professor)
Chemistry and The Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis
Research Interests: development of organometallic and inorganic synthetic methodologies and studies of electron delocalization and transport in electron-rich organometallics
Email: mbarybin@ku.edu
Web: http://www.chem.ku.edu/~chem/barybin/
Daryle Busch (Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of CEBC)
Chemistry and The Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis
Research Interests: Green inorganic chemistry: transition metal coordination chemistry, bioinorganic chemistry focused on dioxygen, its reduction products and their interaction with metal complexes, environmentally benign oxidation catalysis by transition metal compounds, and supramolecular chemistry, especially new materials derived from advanced molecular topologies
Email: busch@ku.edu
Web: http://www.chem.ku.edu/~chem/busch/
Brian Laird (Professor and Associate Chair for Graduate Studies)
Chemistry
Research Interests: Theoretical and computational chemistry
Email: blaird@ku.edu
Web: http://www.chem.ku.edu/~chem/laird/
Michael Rubin (Assistant Professor)
Chemistry and The Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis
Research Interests: Synthetic Methodology, Transition Metal Catalysis, and Physical Organic Chemistry
Email: mrubin@ku.edu
Web: http://www.chem.ku.edu/~chem/rubin/
Ward Thompson (Associate Professor)
Chemistry and the Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis
Research Interests: Theoretical Physical Chemistry, reaction dynamics, quantum mechanical effects, energy transfer, proton transfer, spectroscopy, solvation effects, nanostructured materials
Email: wthompson@ku.edu
Web: http://www.chem.ku.edu/~chem/thompson/
Jon Tunge (Associate Professor)
Chemistry and the Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis
Research Interests: Decarboxylative Metalation Reactions in Organic Synthesis and Combinatorial Synthesis through Catalytic Hydroarylation
Email: tunge@ku.edu
Web: http://www.chem.ku.edu/~chem/tunge/
Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering:
JoAnn Browning (Associate Professor)
Civil/Environ/Arch Engineering
Research Interests: Structural Engineering, Earthquake Engineering, Engineering Materials, Reinforced Concrete Design and Analysis
Email: jpbrown@ku.edu
Web: http://www.ceae.engr.ku.edu/people/browning.html
David Darwin (Deane E. Ackers Distinguished Professor and Director, Structural Engineering and Materials Lab)
Civil/Environ/Arch Engineering
Research Interests: Design of concrete structures, analytical techniques in concrete science and technology, composite materials
Email: daved@ku.edu
Web: http://www.ceae.ku.edu/people/darwin.html
Dennis Lane (N.T. Veatch Distinguished Professor)
Civil/Environ/Arch Engineering
Research Interests: environmental impacts of atmospheric deposition; development of particle monitoring devices; source-receptor relationships associated with atmospheric deposition; noncriteria air pollution monitoring, development of standard operating procedures for the sampling and analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in ambient air; bioaerosol detection and identification; and study of mobile source air pollution emissions in metropolitan areas
Email: lane@ku.edu
Web: http://www.engr.ku.edu/~dlane/
Mario Medina (Associate Professor)
Civil/Environ/Arch Engineering
Research Interests: Building Solar Applpications and Solar Modeling
Email: mmedina@ku.edu
Web: http://web.ku.edu/~mechsys/Index.htm
Anil Misra (Professor)
Civil/Environ/Arch Engineering
Research Interests: Geomechanics/geomaterials, biomechanics/biomaterials, coal combustion products as construction material
Email: amisra@ku.edu
Web: http://www.ceae.engr.ku.edu/people/misra.html
Belinda Mscwain Sturm (Assistant Professor)
Civil/Environ/Arch Engineering
Research Interests: biological processes in environmental engineering, including biological reactor operation and the application of molecular biology tools in water quality analysis
Email: bmcswain@ku.edu
Web: http://ceae.engr.ku.edu/people/sturm.html
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology:
Taylor 'Chip' Orley (Professor)
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Director of Monarch Watch
Research interests: Monarch migration biology and population dynamics in relation to past, present and future climates. Determining the resource base needed to sustain monarchs and other pollinators including honey bees.
Email: chip@ku.edu
Web: http://www2.ku.edu/~eeb/faculty/taylorc.shtml and http://www.monarchwatch.org/
Elizabeth Asiedu (Associate Professor, Associate Chair and Director of Graduate Studies)
Economics
Research Interests: International Economics, Development Economics, Macroeconomics
Email: asiedu@ku.edu
Web: http://people.ku.edu/~asiedu
Dietrich Earnhart (Associate Professor and Director of CEP)
Economics and The Center for Environmental Policy, Insitutue for Policy and Social Research
Research Interests: environmental economic issues that involve legal dimensions, such as optimal strategies for enforcing environmental protection laws, the effects of regulation factors on corporate environmental performance, and the effects of ownership structure on air emissions in transition economics
Email: earnhart@ku.edu
Web: http://www.ipsr.ku.edu/stafffil/earnhart.shtml
Christina Lux (Lecturer and Academic Program Associate)
French and Italian
Research Interests: Sub-Saharan African literature, Caribbean literature, multilingual North American literature, peace and conflict, women writers, eco-criticism,
and gender studies.
Email: lux@ku.edu
J. Christopher Brown (Associate Professor)
Geography
Research Interests: Social relations in Amazonian rural development, Expansion of soybean production in Amazonia, Development and the Politics of Scale
Email: jcbrown2@ku.edu
Web: http://www2.ku.edu/~geography/peoplepages/Brown_C.shtml#research
Johannes Feddema (Professor)
Geography
Research Interests: anthropogenic impacts on climate,environmental and societal climate change, large-scale climate models
Email: feddema@ku.edu
Web: http://www2.ku.edu/~geography/peoplepages/Feddema_J.shtml#research
G. L. Macpherson (Professor)
Geology
Research Interests: Hydrogeology with emphasis on low-temperature aqueous geochemistry
Email: glmac@ku.edu
Web: http://www.people.ku.edu/~glmac/
Karl Brooks (Associate Professor)
History and Environmental Studies Program
Research Interests: Environmental law and policy in North America; energy and environment; non-governmental organizations in American politics, especially environmental policy; and American social and political history since 1945
Email: kbrooks@ku.edu
Web: http://www.history.ku.edu/faculty/brooks/index.shtml
William Tsutsui (Professor and Associate Dean for International Studies)
History
Research Interests: Modern Japan, business and economic history, environmental history, Japanese popular culture, World War II, U.S.-Japanese relations.
Email: btsutsui@ku.edu
Web: http://www.history.ku.edu/faculty/tsutsui/index.shtml
Information and Telecommunications Technology Center (ITTC):
Dan Deavours (Assistant Research Professor and Scholar)
Information and Telecommunications Technology Center (ITTC) and Electrical Engr & Comp Sci
Research Interests: Low-profile, planar, UHF RFID tag technology, Privacy, security, and other RFID projects, Performability modeling specification, Markov chain solutions.
Email: deavours@ku.edu
Web: http://www.ittc.ku.edu/~deavours/
Journalism and Mass Communications:
Charles Marsh (Associate Professor)
Journalism and Mass Communications
Research Interests: An examination of what philosophers from classical Athens can teach us
about modern sustainability efforts
Email: marsh@ku.edu
Web: http://www.journalism.ku.edu/faculty/people/marsh.shtml
Donald Huggins (Senior Scientist and Director)
The KS Biological Survey, Central Plains Center for Bioassessment
Research Interests: aquatic ecology and entomolgy
Email: dhuggins@ku.edu
Web: http://www.kbs.ku.edu/people/html/profile_huggins.htm
Robert Glicksman (Robert W. Wagstaff Distinguished Professor)
School of Law
Research Interests: Environmental Law, Natural Resources Law, Administrative Law, Property
Email: glicks@ku.edu
Web: http://www.law.ku.edu/faculty/faculty/glicksman.shtml
John W. Head (Professor)
School of Law
Research Interests: International economic law, international public law, comparative law legal history, dynastic Chinese law
Email: jhead@ku.edu
Web: http://www.law.ku.edu/faculty/faculty/head.shtml
Christopher Depcik (Assistant Professor)
Mechanical Engineering
Research Interests: Automotive Engineering, Internal Combustion Engines, Alternative Fuels and Energy
Email: depcik@ku.edu
Web: http://www.me.engr.ku.edu/people/depcik.html
Lorin Maletsky (Professor)
Mechanical Engineering
Research Interests: Applications of biomechanics and machine design, Biomechanics testing machines and experimental designs, Kinematic joint studies, Wear of artificial components ,Testing and evaluation of prosthetic devices
Email: maletsky@ku.edu
Web: http://www.me.engr.ku.edu/people/maletsky.htm#research
Liang Tang (Assistant Professor)
Molecular Biosciences
Research Interests: understand the structural basis of assembly, dynamics and function of molecular complexes by using X-ray crystallography and electron cryo-microscopy as primary techniques
Email: tangl@ku.edu
Web: http://www.molecularbiosciences.ku.edu/faculty/tang.shtml
Judy Wu (University Distinguished Professor)
Physics and Astronomy
Research Interests: nanoscience and thin films, nanotechnology that could help supplant fossil fuels and curb climate change
Email: jwu@ku.edu
Web: http://www.physics.ku.edu/vita/wu.html
John Pierce (Affiliate Faculty Member)
Public Administration
Research Interests: Cultural sources of sustainability efforts in the United States
Email: piercejohn@sunflower.com
Web: http://www2.ku.edu/~kupa/faculty/pierce.shtml
Eric Hanley (Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies)
Sociology
Research Interests: Political and Economic Sociology, Sociology of Organizations, Social Stratification, Globalization, and Post-communist Societies
Email: hanley@ku.edu
Web: http://www.sociology.ku.edu/~sociology/people/hanley/
Joane Nagel (University Distinguished Professor and Project Director)
Sociology
and Climate Change, Humans, and Nature in the Global Environment (C-CHANGE)
Research Interests: ethnicities, genders, and sexualities in the US and in the global system, cultural production and construction, social and nationalist movements, American Indian activism, and global climate change
Email: nagel@ku.edu
Web: http://www.sociology.ku.edu/~sociology/people/nagel/
Bonnie Johnson (Assistant Professor)
Urban Planning
Research Interests: Civic bureaucracy, transportation and land use policy, community visioning processes, deliberative democracy, public participation in government, and competitive elections.
Email: bojojohn@ku.edu
Web: http://www2.ku.edu/~swm/People/UBPLFaculty/BonnieJohnson/JohnsonBonnie.shtml
Stacey S. White (Associate Professor)
Urban Planning; Associate Director, Environmental Studies Program; Director of Academic Programs, Center for Sustainability
Research Interests: stormwater management, sustainable communities, public participation, open space protection, and planning pedagogy.
Email: sswhite@ku.edu
Web: http://www2.ku.edu/~swm/People/UBPLFaculty/StaceyWhite/WhiteS.shtml
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