Philip Fay (Research Ecologist, USDA-ARS Grassland, Soil and Water Research Laboratory): Philip Fay is a research ecologist for the USDA-ARS Grassland, Soil and Water Research Laboratory. He received a Ph.D. from Kansas State University, and remained there as a postdoctoral fellow till 1998. Fay’s research interests are in grassland ecosystem ecology, including carbon cycling, climate change, plant physiology, population, and community ecology. His current projects involve the prairie carbon cycles, ecological genomics, and rainfall studies.
Wendy Gordon (Postdoctoral Fellow, Ph.D.): Wendy's research interests focus on questions of global change including vegetation and hydrologic shifts associated with climate change and land-use/land-cover change. She is also interested in the interface between science and policy. In Wendy's research she relies on tools such as GIS, image analysis, and computer simulation.
Richard Kiesling (Research Associate, University of Minnesota; Limnology Specialist, USGS): Richard Keisling is an aquatic ecologist and limnologist specializing in the field of water quality assessment and research. He is currently a Research Associate with the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology at the University of Minnesota, as well as a Limnology Specialist with the U.S. Geological Survey, Minnesota Water Science Center. He is interested in the impact of human activity on aquatic ecosystems, limnology, phycology, and water quality. His current research includes studies of the effects of land use and hydrologic modifications on nutrient fate and transport in watersheds to link spatial analysis of watersheds with biological response models. The objective of this work is to move closer to a predictive understanding of how watersheds respond via ecological mechanisms to nutrient enrichment and hydrologic modification.
MaryLynn Musgrove (Geochemist and Hydrogeologist, USGS): MaryLynn Musgrove is a geochemist and hydrogeologist with the Water Resources Division of the U.S. Geological Survey in Austin, Texas. She received a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2003. From 2001 thru 2003 she was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University in both the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and the Kennedy School of Government. Her research interests include geochemical and isotopic applications to hydrogeology and paleoclimatology, groundwater and aquifer response to climate change, water resource issues, terrestrial paleoclimate, the interface between environmental science and science policy, and science outreach and education.
Libby Stern (Research Chemist, Stable Isotope Specialist, FBI Laboratory, Counterterrorism & Forensic Science Research Unit): Libby Stern is a stable isotope geochemist. She uses the natural abundance of stable isotopes for understanding modern and ancient terrestrial surficial processes. Her research interests include soils development both modern and ancient, the interaction of tectonics and climate recorded in oxygen isotope precipitation proxies, and the biogeochemistry of subterranean ecosystems. She is currently a staff member of the FBI Laboratory - Counterterrorism & Forensic Science Research Unit.
Geoffrey
D. Thyne (Research Associate Professor, Department of Geology and Geological
Engineering,
Colorado School of Mines): Thyne's research includes
the study of water-rock interactions in a variety of geologic settings focused
on aqueous geochemistry and solute transport. Present interests include: the
evolution of groundwater chemistry in arid and semi-arid regions, mass transfer
in clastic diagenesis (CSM/IU consortium), landfills - geochemistry and impact
on water quality, petroleum geology and geochemistry of tight gas sands (Lewis
Shale Study), spatial-statistical analysis of hydrochemical data.
Names link to Faculty Web Pages and E-mail
Jay L. Banner (Professor; Director, ESI): Banner's research investigates how the interactions that occur between the atmosphere-land-ocean systems are preserved in the geologic record. This is explored using field, microscopic, geochemical, and dating studies of 1) cave deposits as records of links between climate change and hydrology, 2) limestones as records of the chemistry of ancient oceans, and 3) modern urbanized aquifers.
Christopher Bell (Assistant Professor): Bell's research centers on understanding the complex dynamics of vertebrate faunal communities during the Quaternary Period. Bell's research program concentrates on two terrestrial vertebrate groups, squamate reptiles and small mammals, and focuses in part on the differences and similarities in the responses of these groups to climate change.
M. Bayani Cardenas (Assistant Professor): Cardenas’ studies surface water and ground water hydrology. Current research topics include: 1) hydrodynamics of surface-ground water interactions, 2) hydroecology, 3) flow and transport in porous and fractured media, 4) energy budgets of rivers, 5) hydrogeophysics, 6) hydrologic applications of thermography, 7) biogeochemical processes in stream-aquifer systems and 8) architecture of fluvial aquifers. These broad topics are investigated using numerical modeling, laboratory experiments, and field campaigns.
Robert L Folk (Professor Emeritus): Since 1990 Dr. Robert L. Folk has been studying minute ovoids in the 100nm size range, which he believes to be "nannobacteria", independently living organisms. These objects have been found in minerals, Martian meteorites, soils, the human body, and in waters. Objections by biologists that these are "too small for life" are invalid as several laboratories have cultured them. If they are indeed dwarf bacteria, they may play an enormous role in chemical reactions on the earth's surface, and their occurrence must be studied with high-resolutition the SEM (20,000 to 1000,000X)
Eric James ( Analytical Geochemist, currently assisting Jay Banner with ESI): James studies a wide range of geologic phenomena using geochemical methods. His work has been on the sources of metals in mineral deposits in West Texas and New Guinea using Sr, Nd, and Pb isotope ratios, Sr isotope ratios in fossils for age and stratagraphic studies, and the trace element characteristics and U-Th ages of cave deposits.
Gary Kocurek (Professor): Kocurek studies desert landforms and their representation in the ancient rock record. He is particularly interested in how sand seas respond to changes in climate, sea level and tectonism. His teaching centers on the basic principles that govern processes that operate on the land surfaces of the Earth.
Randy Marrett (Associate Professor): Marrett's research has focused on characterization of fractured reservoirs, development of detachment folds, structure and regional tectonics of the Sierra Madre Oriental (México) and the Central Andes (Argentina and Chile), and comparisons of geologic with geodetic measurements of strain rate. New work addresses temporal patterns of geyser eruption and structure along the volcanic arc of the Central Andes.
Tim Rowe (Professor and Director, Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory - VPL): The VPL collections include 250,000 cataloged specimens. About 60% are vertebrate fossils that include among the most sensitive biological indicators of climate and environment. These collections offer our most detailed look at how terrestrial environments, particularly those of the Edwards Plateau, have changed over the last 100,000 years.
John Sharp (Professor): Sharp's research interests include: 1) modeling flow and transport in fractured systems; 2) use of geological and geophysical information to characterize volcanic and sedimentary aquifers; 3) subsidence, thermal history and convection in the Gulf of Mexico Basin; 4) hydrogeology of urbanized areas; 5) water resources and hydrogeological evolution of semi-arid zones; and 6) the Edwards aquifer.
Clark R. Wilson (Professor and Chairman): Wilson's research program has included the use of observations of changes in Earth's rotation, center of mass, and gravity field to measure global water and atmospheric mass balance over time scales of days to years. This has involved study of numerical models of the global water cycle, oceans and atmosphere, and analysis of global sea level change.
Zong-Liang Yang (Associate Professor): Yang's research interests include: 1) mathematical modeling of land-surface hydrology and its role in controlling weather and climate, 2) characterizing vegetation and snow cover including their influences on the surface energy and water balances using ground-based and remotely-sensed datasets, 3) quantifying the relative role of land versus oceans in determining rainfall in southwest and south central USA, 4) developing tools for assessing the potential impacts of heavy precipitation associated with severe weather on urban watersheds and flash flood prediction, and 5) investigating the impact of vegetation-derived chemicals on Texas air quality.
Names link to Faculty Web Pages and E-mail
James Austin (Senior Research Scientist): Austin is a marine geologist expert in undersea sampling and the interpretation of sedimentary data. His most recent field studies have been near-shore sampling programs offshore of New Jersey and California, focused on understanding the age and origin of the surficial sediments.
Donald Blankenship (Research Scientist): Blankenship directs the Support Office for Aerogeophysical Research (SOAR), a national facility which provides an airplane, geophysical instrumentation, and support personnel for over-ice Antarctic research. The facility routinely collect gravity, magnetic field, surface elevation, and ice-penetrating radar data, and provides an inexpensive method for surveying vegetation, soil water content, and other near-surface properties which are important for environmental analysis.
Ian Dalziel (Associate Director, Senior Research Scientist, also Professor, Dept. of Geological Sciences ): Dalziel's interests include understanding the nature of life in extreme environments. He proposes to survey of the Bransfield Trough, Antarctica, an environmentally isolated active rift system which should possess thermal vents, etc., which are of interest for biological and chemical study. He is also involved in planning the exploration of the subglacial Lake Vostok, East Antarctica, which lies under nearly 4 km of ice and may have been isolated for tens of millions of years.
Katherine Ellins (Program Manager) K-12 science education.
Cliff Frolich (Associate Director, Senior Research Scientist ): Earthquake seismology, tectonics, synthetic stratigraphy, statistics, classical physics.
Craig Fulthorpe (Research Scientist): Fulthorpe is a marine geologist/sedimentologist. He is interested in the geology of continental margins as revealed by reflection seismic profiles and ocean drilling. His research focuses on the processes, including sea-level change, tectonism, and ocean currents, responsible for creating the preserved stratigraphic record on margins.
Charles Jackson (Research Associate): Jackson's research interests have the goal of distilling lessons from the history of climate for the purpose of advancing our understanding of the physics of the atmosphere, ocean, and cryosphere and their coupling.
Larry Lawver (Senior Research Scientist): Lawver is interested in climate over very long time scales, especially in how the global configuration of tectonic plates affects global meteorology, ocean circulation, and tectonic processes over periods of tens to hundreds of millions of years.
Hilary Olson (Research Associate): Olson is a micropaleontologist who applies various methods to evaluate Foraminifera collected from ocean-bottom sediment cores. When combined with monitoring of heavy minerals, water nutrients, and isotopic analysis, micropaleontological methods provide essential information about past and present climate, and transport properties of ocean and atmospheric currents.
Mrinal Sen (Professor, Dept. of Geological Sciences, Research Professor, UTIG): Sen is an expert in numerical modeling, very fast simulated annealing (VFSA), and the nonlinear inversion of large data sets to find best-fit models. These methods are essential for the analysis of marine seismic reflection data to obtain 3-D models of the Earth's crust, but also apply to certain biological, meteorological, or environmental problems especially where there is ongoing data collection and it is desirable update models as new data are collected.
Paul Stoffa (Senior Research Scientist and Director): Stoffa is an expert in numerical modeling and nonlinear inversion methods, especially as applied to geophysical problems. He is considering a collaboration to apply these techniques to the modeling of commercial ocean fisheries.
Fred Taylor (Senior Research Scientist): Taylor collects live corals and drill cores of coral limestones from various sites in the South Pacific. One research focus is to evaluate frequency and intensity of past El Nino events, determined by evaluating annual growth bands, often in collaboration with geochemists who evaluate sea-surface temperature and other environmental parameters using isotopic methods.
Names link to Faculty Web Pages and E-mail
Anthony F. Amos (Research Associate): Tides and weather along the Texas coast. Marine mammal stranding network, Animal Rescue Program.
Connie Arnold (Professor Emeritus): Maturation and spawning, egg and larval development, growth requirements of marine organisms, designing and testing seawater systems, fish and invertebrate utilization of seagrass meadows as a nursery area.
Edward J. Buskey (Professor): Marine plankton ecology, sensory perception and behavior of marine organisms, bioluminescence of marine organisms.
Kenneth H. Dunton (Professor and Research Scientist): Physiological ecology, in situ productivity, and trophic relations in estuarine marsh, seagrass and algal communities; photosynthetic performance and UV effects on arctic and antarctic macroalgae. Application of remote sensing and GIS in landscape and global change studies.
Henrietta (Hedy) Edmonds ( Assistant Scientist and Research Professor): Natural and anthropogenic radionuclides as tracers of physical and biogeochemical processes; Arctic and northern North Atlantic oceanography; Geochemistry of submarine hydrothermal systems, including vent fluids and plumes.
Lee A. Fuiman (Chairman and Professor, Department of Marine Science Director and Research Professor, Marine Science Institute): Biology and ecology of fishes, especially fish larvae, including behavioral and physiological ecology and organismal biology. Studies include predator-prey interactions and the effects of natural and anthropogenic environmental variations on survival, growth, and health of fishes.
Wayne S. Gardner (Professor): Nitrogen dynamics in the water column and sediments, nutrient-organism interactions in coastal ecosystems, ammonium regeneration, nitrification, denitrification, microbial food web dynamics.
G. Joan Holt (Professor): Larval fish ecology and aquaculture with emphasis on biological and physical factors that limit larval fish growth and development. Research in Holt's lab includes studies of feeding dynamics; ontogenic changes in nutritional requirements; larval fish transport and mechanism of recruitment to estuarine nursery grounds.
James W. McClelland (Assistant Professor, Department of Marine Science and Research Assistant Professor, Marine Science Institute and Environmental Science Institute): Jim’s interests are in the effects of human activity on water, carbon, and nutrient fluxes from land to sea; responses of estuarine and coastal food webs to changes in land-derived resources; and the use of natural tracers to follow water and water-borne constituents across the land-sea interface.
Paul A. Montagna (Professor): Marine benthic ecology, population and community ecology, organism-sediment interactions, trophic dynamics, ecosystems ecology, modeling, environmental statistics. Using marine invertebrate communities as indicators of environmental quality and the ecological relevance of environmental indicators. Studies are currently being performed on effects of contaminants on marine communities and populations, biomagnification of contaminants in food chains, marsh restoration, and effects of freshwater inflow on marine productivity.
Tamara K. Pease
(Research Asst Prof, Ph.D.): Sources, behavior, and cycling of organic compounds
in the marine and estuarine environments; use of specific organic compounds
to elucidate the sources and processes which control the distributions of
organic matter; biogeochemistry and microbial ecology; molecular stable and
radio-isotope organic geochemistry.
Peter Thomas (Professor): Fish reproductive physiology, purification and molecular actions of hormones, environmental endocrinology, applications of endocrinology of fish culture, biochemical and environmental toxicology of marine fishes, especially reproduction.
Richard Tinnin (Research Associate): Marine Education, visiting class program, teacher workshops, UT-Mustang Island Elderhostel programs, developing a Wetlands Education Center on-site at UTMSI.
Tracy Villareal (Associate Professor): Phytoplankton ecology, including growth physiology, ecology and biogeochemistry of oceanic phytoplankton; harmful algal blooms including physiological ecology and occurrence/distribution along the Texas coast. Villareal's lab uses a combination of laboratory culture and field assays to determine what regulates phytoplankton species and the role individual species or groups of species play in biogeochemical cycling.
Names link to Faculty Web Pages and E-mail
Dean Hendrickson (Curator of Ichthyology): Phylogeny, evolution, ecology and conservation of freshwater fishes and aquatic habitats, focusing on western North America (U.S.A. and Mexico). Studies of karst biota provide indicators of aquifer interconnections, with an eye toward applications of such data in environmental impact assessments throughout the large karst regions of Texas and northeastern Mexico.
Chris Durden (Curator Emeritus of Entomology & Geology): Research includes bioassay of habitat condition using diversity structure sampling of arthropod litter fauna and monitoring of short term climatic change using sampling of peripheral range changes in tropical lepidoptera and long term climatic change evaluations based on recent and fossil insects.
David Cannatella (Curator of Herpetology): Reptile and amphibian biodiversity and evolution. Research seeks to document the conservation status of selected species of amphibians and reptiles in Texas and the southwest through field studies with long-term monitoring of selected sites.
Travis J. LaDuc (Assistant Curator of Herpetology): LaDuc's research focuses on the spatial and temporal distribution of herpetological biodiversity across the southwest, particularly using data collected from field studies in Texas. His research also focuses on the natural history of Texas reptiles and amphibians, including spatial ecology, feeding behavior, and morphology.
James Reddell (Curator of Non-Arthropod Invertebrates): Systematics, taxonomy and ecology and conservation of karst invertebrates of Texas, Mexico and Central America.
Edward C. Theriot (Professor and Director): Aquatic biology with an emphasis on systematics and ecology of diatoms, especially diatom evolution in the context of environmental change. Research goals are to improve understanding of the utility of diatoms as environmental indicators, particularly as indicators of naturally occurring local and global climate change.
Names link to Faculty Web Pages and E-mail
Eric V. Anslyn (Professor): Synthetic organic chemistry, molecular recognition; development of novel synthetic receptors for monitoring and quantitation of herbicides and insecticides in water (in collaboration with Jonathan Sessler); development of immobilization methods for creation of sensor arrays (in collaboration with John McDevitt and Dean Neikirk).
Jennifer S. Brodbelt (Professor): Analytical chemistry, mass spectrometry; development of novel mass spectrometric strategies for monitoring and quantitation of pesticides in ground water and soil, with emphasis on fire ant killers; development of new mass spectrometric methods to characterize binding selectivities of novel organic macrocyclic ligands for waste remediation.
James A. Holcombe (Professor): Analytical chemistry, atomic spectroscopy; design of metal binding chelators formed from biopolymers (polypeptides) that have unique selectivities and can be immobilized with activity retained on a number of different substrates and can be used in remediation; metals of interest include heavy metals and transition metals.
Michael J. Krische (Professor): Synthetic organic chemistry, catalytic reaction development; green chemistry for the value-added manipulation of basic chemical feedstocks, development of hydrogen-mediated C-C bond formations and related transformations that circumvent stoichiometric generation of chemical byproducts.
John T. McDevitt (Professor): Materials chemistry; development of new microfabricated sensor arrays that function analogous to an "electronic tongue" in which photochemical sensors are capable of discriminating different analytes, toxins, and bacteria.
Mehdi Moini (Ph.D., Director of the Mass Spectrometry Facility): Mass spectrometry; development of analytical techniques for identification and quantification of environmentally important compounds using chromatography/mass spectrometry and capillary electrophoresis/mass spectrometry, determination of selenium levels in the Rio Grande river.
Jonathan L. Sessler (Professor): Synthetic organic chemistry, molecular recognition objectives: design of new ligands to selectively bind actinide cations and anions such as pertechnetate for remediation of radioactive wastes (in collaboration with Eric Anslyn).
John M. White (Professor): Surface chemistry; fundamental studies of photocatalysis with small metal particles.
C. Grant Willson (Professor): Polymers, photoresists; development of new water-compatible photoresists for environmental applications.
Names link to Faculty Web Pages and E-mail
John C. Abbott (Lecturer; Research Associate with the Texas Memorial Museum; Curator of the Brackenridge Field Laboratory Insect Collection): Abbott's research focuses on the biodiversity, systematics, ecology and behavior of Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies). He also studies the population and evolutionary ecology of aquatic insects and their usefulness as biological indicators of stream and watershed health. Additional interests include the biodiversity and evolutionary ecology of lamellicorn beetles (Scarabaeoidea).
James Bull (Johann Friedrich Miescher Regents Professor in Molecular Biology): Current research is oriented toward solving basic questions about evolution mechanisms, specifically the evolutionary significance of recombination and sex, molecular genetics of adaptations, selfish genes, and cooperation. Research organisms are chiefly bacteriophage because of the ease of laboratory manipulations afforded by them.
Robert Dudley (Associate Professor): Research focuses on aerodynamics, biomechanics, and energetics of flight in insects. A major goal of this work is to elucidate the functional relationships between wing morphology, flight kinematics, and mechanisms of aerodynamic force production. Laboratory studies of flight biomechanics are complemented by fieldwork in Panama, focusing particularly on insect flight performance in nature.
Norma Fowler (Professor): Dr. Fowler's research encompasses the composition and maintenance of natural ecosystems, particularly the grasslands of central Texas. These studies involve studying the effects of herbivory and competition in structuring communities.
Lawrence E. Gilbert (Professor; Director, Brackenridge Field Laboratory): Current research ranges from the analysis of coevolved traits of insects and plants to experimental population dynamics and developmental genetics of mimetic color patterns in Heliconius butterflies, and the mechanisms of evolution and coevolution and rain forest diversity.
Laura Gonzalez (Lecturer): I am an Ecologist interested in both basic and applied population and community ecology of both marine and terrestrial organisms. Along the population lines, I am interested in the effect that the spatial dynamics of populations have on population productivity and on limiting species geographic ranges. My research approaches have included large-scale data synthesis from museum and lab specimens, and from publications as well as large-scale field sampling of bird populations in forests of western Mexico and marine intertidal invertebrates along the NE Pacific coast. In collaboration with other scientists, I have used phylogeographic approaches to understand the dispersal of marine invertebrates across their geographic range. In the near future, I am interested in expanding my research approaches to include both experiments and mathematical theory.
Christine Hawkes (Assistant Professor): Ecology has traditionally been an aboveground field of study, both conceptually and practically. Yet the more we explore belowground, the more evidence we have that soil microorganisms are fundamental to the functioning of aboveground communities and ecosystems. My current research is aimed at a mechanistic understanding of how plant-microbe interactions affect community and ecosystem processes. I am also interested in how these relationships will be influenced by alterations in climate, land-use, and species invasions. Recently I have begun using exotic species invasions as model systems, as they provide both novel interactions and a range of interaction histories. Because my research integrates several areas of ecology, I combine a wide range of techniques, including DNA-based microbial community analyses, stable isotopes, and large-scale plant community manipulations.
David Hillis (Alfred W. Roark Centennial Professor in Natural Sciences and Director of School of Biological Sciences): Systematics is the focus Hillis' research using the techniques of molecular genetics to study relationships among populations species, and higher taxa. General areas of interest include phylogenetic relationships, speciation patterns and mechanisms, molecular evolution (including the use of experimental systems), and the consequences of hybridization and hybrid zones.
Robert Jackson (Adjunct): The movements of carbon and other substances through plant communities. His research has focused in part on the effects of global warming on the plant communities via changes in atmospheric and soil chemistry.
Robert K. Jansen (Professor): The interface of systematics and evolution. His work has utilized information from phylogenetic studies as a guide to conservation priorities. He and his students have also looked at the role hybridization of invasive species with native species has played in the extinction of endemic plants.
Timothy Keitt (Assistant Professor): Dr. Keitt’s research focuses on: land use change and conservation in Madascar, network theory applied to habitat-based conservation planning, and spatial and temporal scaling in ecological dynamics.
Mark Kirkpatrick (Professor): Research in this laboratory involves evolutionary biology using mathematical models of evolution. One area of particular interest is sexual selection and the understanding of how the elaborate male mating displays evolve. Another area of research is the evolution of morphological growth, shape, and phenotypic plasticity.
Randy Linder (Associate Professor): Linder's research focuses on the evolution of complex character traits in a phylogenetic context, the genetic architecture of species, and genetic maternal effects in seeds. Methods include modern molecular techniques, computer modeling, and traditional experimental approaches.
Basset Maguire (Professor): Structure and function in ecological communities are related to each other by a formidable complex of causes and effects. Dr. Maguire's interest is in how the more determinative interactions affect characteristics and dynamics of communities and community sub-systems. To investigate this, he uses small aquatic systems (of algae, protozoa, micro-metazoa, etc).
Lauren Ancel Meyers (Assistant Professor, Section of Integrative Biology): Using a combination of theory, simulation, and microbial experimentation, the Meyers lab addresses problems at the interface of evolution and epidemiology. We build contact network models for predicting and controlling the spread of infectious diseases; study RNA structural evolution through simulation and bioinformatics; and investigate the evolution multispecies bacterial biofilms in vitro.
Ulrich Mueller (Associate Professor): Behavioral Ecology and Molecular Ecology: Dr. Mueller's research aims at understanding the evolution of organismal interactions, particularly the evolution of mutualisms and the evolution of social conflict and cooperation. Current research focuses on the coevolution between fungus-growing ants and their fungi and the evolutionary ecology of halictine bees.
José L. Panero (Associate Professor): Dr. Panero has been involved in research of the floras of sensitive tropical areas such as the rainforests of southern Mexico. He is documenting the diversity in these areas and helping to describe the biotic diversity found there before it is lost through habitat destruction.
Camille Parmesan (Assistant Professor): Biotic responses to global warming; foraging behavior and evolution of diet in butterflies.
Eric Pianka (Denton A. Cooley Centennial Professor): This research involves studies on population and community ecology, evolutionary ecology, resource partitioning, reproductive tactics, foraging theory, thermoregulation, metapopulations, biogeography, species diversity, computer simulation of model systems, emergent properties of ecological systems, disturbance, succession, and landscape ecology.
Mary Ann Rankin (Professor; Dean, College of Natural Sciences): Research in this laboratory focuses on the physiological basis of insect behavior and life history characteristics. Recent research projects include: analyses of the hormonal, environmental and genetic factors controlling migratory behavior and reproductive development in several species of migratory insects; investigation of the hormonal basis of wing polymorphism in insects; and analysis of various aspects of circadian rhythms in honeybees, especially as they relate to foraging activity.
Dick Richardson Our research interests relate to ecological restoration and conservation, particularly of prairies. We have found that functioning of the soil ecosystem is critical for establishing and maintaining a healthy plant community, and the recycling of organic matter from above ground growth to below ground communities of species is greatly facilitated by herbivory, particular by large ungulates like bison, and even livestock. For the beneficial effects the herbivory must be controlled to avoid overgrazing, and to optimize the deposition of dung so burial by insects such as dung beetles is effective. While natural control of herbivory is facilitated by pack-hunting predators, herders can easily simulate the appropriate behavior. When properly managed, the livestock are also useful for revegetating areas if low fertility and/or high erosion are limiting factors. If supplied with hay and the area seeded, even mining wastes can become productive. For examples, there are links from the class web site for Natural Resource Management.
Michael Ryan (Clark Hubbs Regents Professor in Zoology): The evolution and mechanisms of animal behavior to address sexual selection and communication in frogs, and more recently, in fish; developing an integrated understanding of the mechanisms of communication involved in mate attraction with the evolutionary consequences of sexual selection.
Sahotra Sarkar (Professor and Director, Biodiversity and Biocultural Restoration Laboratories)
Beryl B. Simpson (Professor): Dr. Simpson studies the systematics and biogeography of flowering plants and is the Associate Director of the Plant Resources Center. Her work documents present and past distributions of plants in Texas, Mexico, and South America as well as their evolutionary histories.
Michael C. Singer (Professor): Singer studies the evolution of diet breadth in plant-feeding insects and the origin and significance of correlations between oviposition preference of female insects and performance of their offspring.
Names link to Faculty Web Pages and E-mail
Rasika M. Harshey (Professor): Swarming motility in E. coli: a model for understanding surface signal transduction. Microbial cells can adsorb to almost any interface in an aqueous environment. Their subsequent growth and reproduction results in a microbial biofilm. These biofilms play a major role in medicine, industrial productivity and aquatic ecology.
Richard J. Meyer (Professor): Most plasmids in Gram-negative bacteria have a restricted host-range but some groups are widely distributed among unrelated genera. These plasmids are disseminated primarily by conjugation, which can result in DNA transfer to other bacterial species and into eukaryotes. His laboratory studies how plasmid DNA is processed for conjugal transfer.
Ian J. Molineux (Professor): Genetics and molecular biology of host-parasite interactions and mechanisms of translocating DNA across cellular compartments. Collaborative projects include molecular evolution and adaptation using bacteriophages as models, bacteriophage growth in bacterial biofilms, and, with geologists, in microbial transformations and biodiversity in mineral deposition and dissolution, bioremediation, and in seismically active environments.
Dennis R Schneider (Adjunct Associate Professor, Director of Research and Development at Micro-Bac International, Inc., Round Rock, Texas): Teaches Microbial Ecology (upper division) and is writing college-level text for microbiology majors. Research interests are in the microbial physiology of adaptation to extreme environments and biodiversity in microbial ecosystems. Micro-Bac research includes the development of microbial methods for enhanced oil recovery, bioremediation, and control of mineral deposition and corrosion.
Names link to Faculty Web Pages and E-mail
Karl W. Butzer (Dickson Professor of Liberal Arts and Director, Applied Geomorphology and Geoecology Laboratory): Butzer, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, studies and teaches about geomorphology, climate and global environmental change, geoarchaeology, and human adaptations to environmental change in Africa, Spain, Australia, and Mexico. He is currently leading a multi-year project studying Holocene climate and fluvial system changes in the Texas/Mexico borderlands.
Kelley A. Crews-Meyer (Assistant Professor, Digital Remote Sensing): Remote sensing, GISc, regional and global change, Amazonian Ecuador, Thailand. Director, GISc Center. She manages (with Paul Hudson) the Digital Landscape Laboratory for remote sensing analysis of water resources and land use land cover change, and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in remote sensing and GISc.
Peter Dana (Lecturer and Research Fellow): geographic information science, global positioning systems, participatory mapping, cultural geography
Diana K. Davis (Assistant Professor): Medical geography, ethnoveterinary medicine, political ecology, pastoral societies, range ecology, Middle East
William E. Doolittle (Erich W. Zimmermann Regents Professor and Chair, Department of Geography and the Environment): Doolittle's work focuses on arid land and water management over time, with a focus on the American Southwest, northern Mexico, and Spain. A current research project is the impact of volcanic ashfalls on arid water conservation by crop plants. Doolittle teaches courses on agricultural ecosystems, geographical and GPS field methods, and Mexico/Southwest.
Robin Doughty (Professor). Doughty works on issues of cultural biogeography, including the place of animals and birds in human life. He has worked on a variety of Texas birds (including the whooping crane) and is currently studying the Albatross in the circumpolar South.
Robert Dull (Assistant Professor and Director, Palynology Laboratory): Dull's research has focused on reconstruction of past vegetation and paleoenvironments in Central America and California; and relationships of prehistoric cultures, prehistoric agriculture, and the archeologic record to past environmental change. He curates the University's pollen collection.
Robert K. Holz (Zimmermann Professor Emeritus): Holz introduced remote sensing to the University of Texas, authoring one of the first textbooks in the subject and developing both undergraduate and graduate classes and research facilities. He specializes in the application of remote sensing to the solution of environmental problems, especially in the Middle East and Texas/Mexico borderlands.
Paul F. Hudson (Associate Professor): Hudson's area of specialty is in fluvial geomorphology, with regional interests in Gulf Coastal Plain river systems. His major areas of research and teaching include: (1) river channel adjustment in alluvial river systems, particularly due to human impacts from engineering and land cover change, (2) discharge and suspended sediment transport dynamics, (3) channel metamorphosis in response to climate change and sea-level rise during the Holocene, (4) Geographic Information Systems.
Troy Kimmel (Lecturer and member, American Meteorological Society): Kimmel's area of specialization is hazardous and extreme weather. He teaches a course on hazardous weather, using web-based modules. He also teaches the university's introductory course on weather and climate.
Brian King (Assistant Professor): King studies conservation, national parks, and policy in Africa. He teaches courses in related areas as well as in sustainable development.
Gregory W. Knapp (Associate Professor): Knapp works on adaptive dynamics, modeling changes in human-environment relations as related to the microscale patterning of soil and water in mountain and desert environments. He has worked on impacts of global climate change on the high Andes, and is currently working on the long term impact of volcanic eruptions on adaptive strategies in Ecuador.
Ian Manners (Professor): Manners has worked on environmental aspects of oil and energy development in the North Sea and the Middle East; he is also interested in conservation issues in the Middle East and has often taught courses on conservation issues.
Francisco L. Perez (Professor and Director, Soils Laboratory): Perez studies plant ecology; he focuses on the relationships between plants, soils, microclimate, and geomorphic processes. Much of his work has focused on high mountain ecosystems in the Andes, Hawaii, and Sierra Nevada mountains of California. He teaches courses in process gemorphology, ecology of world vegetation, soils, mountain geoecology, and environmental systems.
Rodrigo Sierra (Assistant Professor and Director of Center for Environmental Studies in Latin America): Sierra performs research on tropical land use and land cover change, forestry, and environmental policy. He teaches courses on Geographic Information Science and on enviroment and society.
Mark Simmons (Lecturer and Research Fellow): Simmmons researches landscape ecology and fire ecology at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and teaches courses on ecological field techniques.
Kenneth R. Young (Ph.D., Quantitative Landscape Ecology): Conservation, ecological restoration issues, and ecosystem management, and have skills in landscape assessment and analysis using GIS and quantitative methods. He will teach courses and seminars in landscape ecology, international conservation, and field methods.
Names link to Faculty Web Pages and E-mail
Kent S. Butler (Associate Dean and Director, Community and Regional Planning): Urban and environmental planning, water resources planning and policy studies, sustainable planning and development. Butler conducts applied research and planning projects at various scales with local, state and federal agencies and university collaborators. He works nationally and internationally on water resource planning projects, land use-environmental planning programs, habitat conservation planning, and coastal zone planning and development.
Steven Moore (Associate Professor) Moore teaches design and a series of courses related to the philosophy, history, and application of environmental technology. These topics naturally lead to the critical study of Design With Climate issues and "sustainability" as a cultural phenomenon.
Barbara Parmenter (Assistant Professor) Parmenter's interests focus on 1) historical urban/regional analysis, and 2) geographic information systems and associated technologies for data gathering, visualization, analysis, and communication. In addition, she is interested in development of tools and techniques that enable young people (K-12), university students, and local citizens to understand and analyze their communities.
Robert Paterson
(Associate Professor) Robert Paterson, an award winning instructor, teaches graduate level courses in Environmental Impact Assessment, Brownfield Redevelopment, Natural Hazard Mitigation, Growth Management, Public Policy Dispute Resolution, Public Finance, and Growth Management. Dr. Paterson is also active in professional planning practice within Texas, providing multiple opportunities for professional development seminars and conferences for Texas APA planners. He has served on numerous state and regional planning advisory boards and task forces, the Texas APA Board as Awards Chair and Education Foundation
member, and is a regular contributor to the annual Texas APA conference.
Sahotra Sarkar (Professor and Director, Biodiversity and Biocultural Restoration Laboratories)
Sam Wilson Wilson is interested in processes of cultural interactions in "contact situations". He conducts research on the emergence of complex forms of social and political organization in human history, and the relationship of communication technology to political structures. He has studied the culture of the indigenous people of the Caribbean and the events that have taken place after the arrival of Europeans.
David Eaton (Bess Harris Jones Centennial Professor in Natural Resource Policy Studies and Director, UT Austin Center for Environmental Resource Management in Latin America): Policy interests: environmental engineering; health; agriculture; international affairs.
Chandler Stolp (Associate Professor; Director, Center for Inter-American Policy Studies) Stolp is an applied statistician and economist with interests in research methods, policy decision making, regional development, and U.S.-Latin American relations. His research focuses on western hemispheric economic integration, regional economics, and public sector productivity.
Names link to E-mail addresses
Eddie Collins (Research Associate): Geologic mapping, geologic hazards. Recent studies: Mapping of Edwards aquifer; studies of active faulting in West Texas; mapping geology of urban growth areas of central Texas, mapping of Texas-Mexico border area.
Alan Dutton (Research Scientist): Groundwater hydrology, aqueous geochemistry. Recent studies: Groundwater models of High Plains aquifer; geochemistry of High Plains aquifer; hydrologic model of Carrizo-Wilcox aquifer; hydrologic studies of Edwards aquifer.
Jim Gibeaut (Research Associate): Coastal studies, coastal processes, LIDAR. Recent studies: Shoreline change analysis of Texas Gulf Coast; LIDAR studies of selected areas of Honduras impacted by Hurricane Mitch; LIDAR studies of Texas Gulf Coast.
Roberto Gutierrez (Research Scientist Associate): Geodesy, GPS, LIDAR, remote sensing. Recent studies: LIDAR studies of selected areas of Honduras impacted by Hurricane Mitch; LIDAR studies of Texas Gulf Coast; high-resolution bathymetry.
Tiffany Hepner (Research Scientist Associate): Coastal processes, LIDAR, GIS. Recent studies: Coastal processes in Florida; LIDAR studies of Texas Gulf Coast.
Sue Hovorka (Research Scientist): Sedimentology, applications of sedimentology to aquifer studies and waste site characterization. Recent studies: Stratigraphic studies of Edwards aquifer; geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide; K-12 educational outreach.
Jeff Paine (Research Scientist): Environmental geophysics, climate change, coastal studies. Recent studies: Geophysical investigations of salinization; environmental applications of shallow seismic techniques; airborne electromagnetic investigations Lower Rio Grande Valley.
Jay Raney (Associate Director): Field geology, geologic processes, remote sensing, natural resources. Recent studies: Texas-Mexico database synthesis; El Paso region geologic mapping; geoenvironmental studies Belize and Venezuela; public outreach.
Bob Reedy (Research Scientist Associate): Hydrology, unsaturated zone hydrology, monitoring. Recent studies: Monitoring of natural settings and engineered barriers in semi-arid settings; monitoring of unsaturated zone on Southern High Plains.
Becky Smyth (Research Scientist Associate): Hydrology, GPS, GIS, LIDAR, characterization of contaminated sites. Recent studies: LIDAR studies of selected areas of Honduras impacted by Hurricane Mitch; LIDAR studies of Texas Gulf Coast.
Bridget Scanlon (Senior Research Scientist): Unsaturated zone hydrology, groundwater recharge, engineered barriers, karst hydrology. Recent studies: Vadose zone studies of semi-arid environments; recharge of Edwards aquifer; enhanced recharge of High Plains aquifer.
Tom Tremblay (Research Associate): Geographic Information Systems, remote sensing, physical geography. Recent studies: GIS applications for coastal studies, shoreline change analysis, and geologic hazards; GIS database development in Texas-Mexico border area.
Bill White (Research Associate): Coastal wetlands, coastal subsidence, shoreline change, land cover/land use, remote sensing. Recent studies: Coastal wetlands and shoreline change of Texas Gulf Coast; environmental mapping of Orinoco Delta; land-use change in Belize.
Janis Lariviere (Specialist): Program Coordinator for UTeach, a collaboration between the College of Natural Sciences and the College of Education which prepares secondary science and mathematics teachers. Janis is also the K-12 representative on the Texas Environmental Education Partnership Fund Board, a state board established by Governor Bush in 1999. Janis taught high school science, including environmental science, for 24 years.
D. Max Snodderly (Professor, Human Ecology/Nutritional Sciences and Institute for Neuroscience): Professor Snodderly studies primate visual systems and effects of nutrition on the retina. He teaches International Nutrition: Social and Environmental Policies (NTR 360), a course that examines relationships between nutritional needs of humans and social and environmental policies.
Ben R. Hodges (Assistant Professor): Ben Hodges' area of expertise is in environmental and water resources engineering. His technical interests include hydrodynamics, transport and water quality issues in lakes, rivers and estuaries.
David Maidment (Professor): David Maidment is a specialist in surface water hydrology, and in particular in the application of geographic information systems to hydrology. He has been cooperating in this field with ESRI, manufacturers of Arc/Info and ArcView. He and his research team have current projects applying GIS for flood plain mapping, water quality modeling, water resources assessment, hydrologic simulation, surface water-groundwater interaction, and global hydrology.
Danny Reible (Bettie Margaret Smith Chair of Environmental Health Engineering, Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering): Dr. Reible is the Bettie Margaret Smith Chair of Environmental Health Engineering a the University of Texas and Director of the EPA supported Hazardous Substance Research Center/South & Southwest, a consortium of Louisiana State University, Rice University, Texas A&M, Georgia Tech and the University of Texas. He joined the University of Texas in 2004 after 23 years with Louisiana State University. Dr. Reible leads both fundamental and applied efforts in the assessment and management of risks of hazardous substances, especially as they apply to contaminated sediments. He has authored or edited four books and more than 100 refereed publications. Dr. Reible has led the development of in-situ sediment capping and currently leads a large demonstration of active capping technologies in the Anacostia River in Washington DC. Dr. Reible was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2005. He is a Professional Engineer (LA) and a Diplomate of the American Academy of Environmental Engineering. He is a member of the National Research Council Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology.
David T. Allen (Melvin H. Gertz Regents Chair in Chemical Engineering and the Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Resources at the University of Texas at Austin): Dr. Allen’s research addresses issues related to air quality in Texas. He was a lead investigator in one of the largest and most successful air quality studies ever undertaken: the Texas Air Quality Study (www.utexas.edu/research/ceer/texaqs). His current work is focused on using the results from that study to provide a sound scientific basis for air quality management in Texas.
Charles Buddie Mullins (Professor of Chemical Engineering and Z. D. Bonner Professorship): Professor Mullins has expertise in surface chemical kinetics and dynamics. He is currently studying the interactions between atmospheric gases and model aerosol surfaces and in particular water-ice surfaces and organic surfaces constructed of self-assembled monolayers. Ultrahigh vacuum, surface science, and molecular beam techniques are employed in these studies.
John H. Richburg (Associate Professor, Head, Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Director, Toxicology Training Program, and Director, Center for Molecular and Cellular Toxicology): Dr. Richburg's laboratory research is focused on elucidating the mechanisms of testicular injury culminating in germ cell death after exposure to environmental toxicants. Current projects are centered on understanding the signaling systems that play a role in toxicant-induced germ cell death via apoptosis, or programmed cell death. Recent work has implicated the Fas signaling system in the initiation of germ cell apoptosis induced by environmental toxicants.
James
S. Dyer (The Fondren Foundation Centennial Chair In
Business, Ph.D., Department of Management Science and Information Systems):
Dr. Dyer's research and teaching interests include risk management and capital
budgeting, including work related to the management of environmental risks.
He is the Area Editor for the field of decision analysis for the journal Operations
Research. For example, he designed the decision process and performed the
analysis used by NASA to select the trajectories for the Voyager Spacecraft.
These two spacecraft successfully accomplished their mission of gathering
scientific information regarding Saturn, Jupiter, and their moons. More recently,
he was asked by the Department of Energy (DOE) to lead a team to evaluate
alternatives for the disposition of weapons-usable plutonium that remains
when nuclear weapons are disassembled.
Linda Golden (Marlene and Morton Meyerson Centennial
Professor In Business, Ph.D., Department of Marketing Administration): Linda
Golden's research areas include advertising, consumer behavior, process improvement/redesign.
James P. Barufaldi (Ruben E. Hinojosa Regents Professor In Education And Distinguished Teaching Professor, Ph.D.): Barufaldi's special areas of interests are curriculum design, instructional strategies, implementation, evaluation, professional development, and science teacher education. He is currently investigating the process of building successful collaboratives in the science education community and variables, which may contribute to high intensity, sustained collaboration.
LeeAnn Kahlor (Assistant Professor): Kahlor looks at predictors of public knowledge, information seeking, and information processing concerning personal health risks (e.g., consumption of contaminated water) and risks to the environment (e.g., pollution of the Great Lakes). She is currently studying how and why some people actively seek information about global warming and others actively avoid it.
Susan Schwinning (Assistant Professor): Susan is an assistant professor at Texas State University, San Marcos. Her area of expertise is the ecology of plants in arid and semi-arid regions, particularly the use of resource pulses by plants on time scales from days to decades. She is now pursuing this interest in the hydrologically complex environments of the Edwards Plateau to improve understanding of interactions between surface hydrology and plant physiological and population dynamics.
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