Washington University is a research-based university. WUCCP’s Research Database facilitates collaboration between WashU faculty and students on climate-related research. Each entry links to a researcher’s lab website or department biography and includes a self-reported research description. The entries can be categorized by name or department.

Adding research

If your would like your research to be added to the Database, please click the button to the right. If you have any other questions, please contact climatechange@wustl.edu.

This semester, WUCCP is updating the database with a new format. Please excuse any inconsistencies.

Showing: All results

Ramesh Agarwal, PhD

William Palm Professor of Engineering

  • Sustainable Aviation and Ground Transportation
  • Green and High Performance Buildings
  • HVAC & R Systems
  • Climate Modeling
  • Global Warming
  • Stabilization Wedges to Control Global Warming
  • Sustainable Development

Damena Agonafer, PhD

Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science

  • Data Center Cooling
  • Thermal Management
  • Thermal Desalination
  • Hypersonics
  • Additive Manufacturing

Richard Axelbaum, PhD

The Stifel & Quinette Jens Professor of Environmental Engineering Science, Energy, Environ. & Chem. Engr.

  • Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS)

Peng Bai, PhD

Assistant Professor in Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering

  • Electrochemical Energy Storage Systems

Tim Bartley, PhD

Professor of Sociology

  • Forests and climate
  • Transnational governance
  • Global production networks
  • Corporate sustainability
  • Environmental justice

Arpita Bose, PhD

Associate Professor of Biology and Earth & Planetary Sciences

  • Sustainable bioproduction
  • Carbon sequestration

Carlos A Botero, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Biology

  • Evolutionary ecology

Alexander S Bradley, PhD

Associate Professor, Earth and Planetary Sciences

  • Environmental and biological parameters that produce chemical compounds stored in the geological record
  • Compounds that can be climate proxies

Jeffrey G Catalano, PhD

Professor, Earth and Planetary Sciences

  • Biogeochemistry in soils and aquatic system

Danielle Dutton, PhD

Associate Professor, English

  • Creative writing

Ray Ehrhard, PhD

Senior Lecturer, Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering

  • Pollution control
  • Energy management

David A Fike, PhD

Professor, Earth and Planetary Sciences

  • Biogeochemical cycling
  • Stable isotope analysis
  • Earth’s long-term environmental evolution
  • Past records of Earth’s environmental change

Catalina Freixas, MArch

Associate Professor, Architecture

  • Resilience in natural, built, and social environments
  • Social and environmental consequences of urban segregation

Daniel Giammar, PhD

Professor of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering

  • Carbon Capture and Sequestration
  • Biogeochemical Processes Influencing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Bret Gustafon, PhD

Associate Professor of Anthropology

  • Corruption in the fossil fuel industry
  • Community resistance to polluting corporations
  • Corporate and academic greenwashing
  • Fossil fuel industry interference in local and state policy making

Sophia Hayes, PhD

Professor, Department of Chemistry

  • Carbon capture and sequestration

Zhen (Jason) He, PhD

Professor of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering

  • Energy-efficient water and wastewater treatment
  • Resource recovery from wastes
  • Bioenergy production

Patty Heyda, MArch

Associate Professor, Urban Design and Architecture

  • American cities
  • Redevelopment, Race and Inequality
  • Cities and climate change
  • Mapping
  • Urban Design
  • Architecture
  • Planning and Public policy

John Hoal, MAUD

Professor, Architecture

  • Sustainable Urbanism
  • Design and activation of public space
  • Climate Resiliency Planning
  • Equitable City Redevelopment
  • Philosophy of architecture and the city

Derek Hoeferlin, MArch

Associate Professor, Chair of landscape architecture and urban design programs

  • Architecture
  • Landscape architecture
  • Urban design
  • Water-based design strategies
  • Climate change adaptation
  • Comparative watershed research

Elizabeth Hubertz, JD

Director/Associate Prof of Practice, Clinical

Client-service organization working on:

  • Pollution (air, water, land)
  • Environmental justice issues (home heating costs, mold, vacancies)

Lora Iannotti, PhD

Associate Professor of Public Health

  • Nutrition
  • Sustainable healthy diets
  • Food security

Young-Shin Jun, PhD

Professor in Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering

  • Carbon capture, utilization, and storage
  • CO2-material interactions
  • Water purification for remote or disaster-struck areas

Jonathan Katz, PhD

Professor of Physics

  • Historical climatology

Tristram R. Kidder

Chair and Professor of Anthropology

  • Historical ecology
  • Landscape and environmental archaeology
  • Climate’s impact on human societies

Bronwen L Konecky, PhD

Assistant Professor, Earth and Planetary Sciences

  • Tropical climate variability and change
  • Paleoclimatology
  • Global water cycle
  • Stable isotope and organic geochemistry
  • Paleoclimate modeling and data-model intercomparison
  • Natural drivers of climate change

Johnelle Lamarque, PhD

Lecturer, Anthropology

  • Environmental and housing issues

Suzanne Loui, PhD

Lecturer, Environmental Studies

  • Environmental humanities
  • Environmental modernism
  • Public perception of energy technologies
  • Science communication
  • Environmental History

Frank Lovett, PhD

Professor, Political Science

  • Theories of Freedom
  • Social Justice
  • Rule of Law

Randall Martin, PhD

Professor in Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering

  • Atmospheric composition
  • Atmospheric aerosols
  • Satellite remote sensing
  • Atmospheric modeling
  • Atmospheric chemistry

Edward McPherson, MFA

Associate Professor of English

  • Environmental justice
  • Climate Change
  • Radioactive/nuclear legacy
  • Fracking/oil & gas production

Kim Medley, PhD

Director of Tyson Research Center, Tyson Research Center

  • Ecology and evolution of infectious diseases
  • Urban ecology and evolution
  • Disease vector ecology and evolution
  • Human-environment interactions

Rohan Mishra, PhD

Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science

  • Electrocatalysts
  • Solar cells
  • Batteries

Jonathan Myers, PhD

Associate Professor of Biology

  • Biodiversity & Environmental Change
  • Community Ecology
  • Biogeography
  • Fire & Disturbance Ecology
  • Species Interactions in Changing Environments
  • Forest Ecology
  • Plant Functional Ecology & Ecophysiology
  • Restoration Ecology
  • Tropical Ecology

Ryan Ogliore, PhD

Assistant Professor, Physics

  • Paleoproxies of climate change

 

Kimberly Parker , PhD

Assistant Professor, Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering

  • Pollutant fate & transport
  • Emerging biotechnology
  • Water treatment

Rachel Penczykowski, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Biology

  • Ecology and evolution of infectious diseases
  • Plant pathogen interaction with the environment
  • Environmental drivers of disease
  • Effects of diseases on ecosystems

William Pickard, PhD

Senior Professor, Electricity and Systems Engineering

  • Exploring fossil fuel trajectories
  • Preparing for fossil fuel depletion
  • Evaluating sustainability of renewable energy sources
  • Discerning potential realism of proposed energy storage technologies

Robert Pollak, PhD

Hernreich Distinguished Professor of Economics

  • Environmental policy

Ramesh Raliya, PhD

Research Scientist, Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering

  • Reducing fertilizer runoff
  • Sustainable agriculture
  • Energy efficient recovery
  • Recycling and reuse of nutrients and water
  • Integration of data science and artificial intelligence

Mary Ruppert-Stroescu, PhD

Associate Professor, Fashion Design

  • Sustainable fashion

Bryce Sadtler, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

  • Solar Energy Conversion

Linda Samuels, PhD

Associate Professor in Urban Design

  • Urban Design
  • Sustainable Urbanism
  • Next Generation Infrastructure
  • Alternative Metrics

Feng Sheng Hu, PhD

Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences and Professor, Biology and Earth & Planetary Sciences

  • Long-term ecosystem dynamic changes due to climate change

Betsy Sinclair, PhD

Professor, Political Science

  • Changes in attitudes and opinions surrounding climate change

Jennifer R Smith, PhD

Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; Professor, Earth and Planetary Sciences

  • Understanding the interaction between humans and their environment as recorded in the archeological record
  • Effects of climatic and environmental changes on resources available to people through time
  • Effects of changes in population and technology on human environmental impact

Steven S Smith, PhD

Kate M. Gregg Distinguished Professor of Social Science, Professor of Political Science

  • Politics of Climate Change
  • Public Attitudes

William H Smith, PhD

Professor, Earth and Planetary Sciences

  • Viability and composition of ecological niches
  • Identification of species in oceans
  • Land and urban environments

Joseph Steensma, EdD

Professor of Practice, Public Health

  • Sustainable food systems
  • Leveraging enterprise to solve environmental problems
  • Food/climate/ecology/enterprise nexus

Glenn Davis Stone, PhD

Professor, Anthropology

  • Environmental anthropology
  • Political ecology
  • Agricultural systems
  • Indigenous knowledge

*These topics are derived from the table of contents of the IPCC AR6 report.