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.
In addition to efforts of individual researchers and collaboration within and among departments, the University of Kansas has a number of units devoted to sustainability-related research. On our website, you can browse a list of major research centers at KU that contribute to the advancement of sustainability.
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
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
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
Jane Gibson (Associate Professor)
Socio-Cultural Anthropology
Research Interests: Cultural anthropology, political ecology, economic anthropology, natural resource management, tourism and development, visual anthropology
Shannon Criss (Associate Professor, Curriculum Coordinator)
Architecture
Research Interests: Sustainable Design, Community Design, Recycled-Content Architectural Products
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
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
Jenn-Tai Liang (Professor and 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
Aaron Scurto (Associate 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
Susan Stagg-Williams (Associate Professor)
Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
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)
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
Laurence Weatherley (Spahr Professor and Chair of Chemical Engineering)
Chemical and Petroleum Engineering and the Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis
Research Interests: Liquid-liquid systems and intensification, enzymatic catalysis, ion exchange and adsorption
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
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
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
Brian Laird (Professor and Associate Chair for Graduate Studies)
Chemistry
Research Interests: Theoretical and computational chemistry
Michael Rubin (Assistant Professor)
Chemistry and The Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis
Research Interests: Synthetic Methodology, Transition Metal Catalysis, and Physical Organic Chemistry
Ward Thompson (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
Jon Tunge (Professor)
Chemistry and the Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis
Research Interests: Decarboxylative Metalation Reactions in Organic Synthesis and Combinatorial Synthesis through Catalytic Hydroarylation
Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering:
JoAnn Browning (Associate Dean and Professor)
Civil/Environ/Arch Engineering
Research Interests: Structural Engineering, Earthquake Engineering, Engineering Materials, Reinforced Concrete Design and Analysis
David Darwin (Deane E. Ackers Distinguished Professor)
Civil/Environ/Arch Engineering
Research Interests: Design of concrete structures, analytical techniques in concrete science and technology, composite materials
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
Mario Medina (Associate Professor)
Civil/Environ/Arch Engineering
Research Interests: Building Solar Applpications and Solar Modeling
Anil Misra (Professor)
Civil/Environ/Arch Engineering
Research Interests: Geomechanics/geomaterials, biomechanics/biomaterials, coal combustion products as construction material
Belinda S.M. 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
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
Elizabeth Asiedu (Associate Professor)
Economics
Research Interests: International Economics, Development Economics, Macroeconomics
Dietrich Earnhart (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 economic
Christina Lux (Assistant Director & Courtesy Assistant Professor)
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
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
Johannes Feddema (Professor)
Geography
Research Interests: anthropogenic impacts on climate,environmental and societal climate change, large-scale climate models
G. L. Macpherson (Professor)
Geology
Research Interests: Hydrogeology with emphasis on low-temperature aqueous geochemistry
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
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.
Journalism and Mass Communications:
Charles Marsh (Professor)
Journalism and Mass Communications
Research Interests: An examination of what philosophers from classical Athens can teach us
about modern sustainability efforts
Donald Huggins (Senior Scientist and Director)
The KS Biological Survey, Central Plains Center for Bioassessment
Research Interests: aquatic ecology and entomolgy
Christopher Depcik (Assistant Professor)
Mechanical Engineering
Research Interests: Automotive Engineering, Internal Combustion Engines, Alternative Fuels and Energy
Lorin Maletsky (Associate 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
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
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
John Pierce (Affiliate Faculty Member)
Public Administration
Research Interests: Cultural sources of sustainability efforts in the United States
Eric Hanley (Associate Professor)
Sociology
Research Interests: Political and Economic Sociology, Sociology of Organizations, Social Stratification, Globalization, and Post-communist Societies
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
Bonnie Johnson (Associate Professor)
Urban Planning
Research Interests: Civic bureaucracy, transportation and land use policy, community visioning processes, deliberative democracy, public participation in government, and competitive elections.
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.
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