Charles Driscoll, Principal Investigator

Charles Driscoll is a Distinguished and University Professor at Syracuse University. His teaching and research interests are in the area of environmental chemistry, biogeochemistry and water quality modeling. He studies effects of air pollution, climate change and land use on forest, wetland, freshwater and coastal ecosystems, using field investigations, laboratory studies, long-term field measurements, whole-ecosystem manipulation studies, and the development and application of models.

 

 

 

 

 

Laura Lautz, Corresponding Principal Investigator

Laura Lautz is interested in understanding how physical hydrologic processes influence water quality and movement through watersheds. She studies how water moves through paired surface water and groundwater systems, heat tracing in hydrologic systems, and interactions between the energy and water cycles. She works on several specific interdisciplinary research projects, within which she uses field experiments coupled with computer modeling experiments.

 

 

 

 

Senior Personnel:

Laura Condon

Laura Condon is an assistant professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Her work is focused on large-scale water sustainability and the dynamic behavior of managed hydrologic systems in the context of past development and future climate change. Studies have demonstrated connections between groundwater depth, soil moisture, land energy fluxes, and large-scale weather patterns; yet few have considered the effect management has on these interactions. Improved characterization of complex system dynamics could provide new avenues for increasing efficiency and mitigating risk. Her work combines physically based numerical modeling with statistical techniques to evaluate large systems using rigorous quantitative methods.

 

 

 

 

David Chandler

Associate Professor David Chandler investigates hydrologic change related to anthropogenic ecologic and climatic drivers.   He is developing the capacity to understand the hydrologic performance, ecosystem interactions and functional limitations of the varied and widespread green infrastructure projects currently under construction in Syracuse and other cities in the Northeast USA.

 

 

 

 

Cliff Davidson

Cliff Davidson is the Thomas and Colleen Wilmot Professor of Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems. He is currently Program Director for Environmental Engineering. He conducts research on how green infrastructure can help solve urban stormwater problems, and how air pollutants can cause contamination of receiving waters. He also studies how communities choose their environmental policies, what metrics communities use to determine their level of sustainability, and what people understand about the environmental impacts of their daily activities.

 

 

 

 

Chris Johnson

Chris Johnson studies the chemistry of soils and natural waters. His recent work includes studies of natural organic matter, which plays an important role in soil fertility, trace metal transport, and the acid-base status of soils and natural waters. Professor Johnson also has ongoing research on the fate of trace metals (Pb, Zn, Cu, Ni) in forest soils and landscapes and the changing acid-base chemistry of soils and surface waters historically affected by acid rain. His research on soil and water chemistry has taken place in the Adirondacks, the Catskills and the White Mountains in New Hampshire.

 

 

 

Tara Kahan

Tara Kahan is an environmental chemist. Her research uses techniques from physical and analytical chemistry to understand reactions in the natural environment. Current research areas include: Investigating the effect of water composition (e.g. saltwater vs. freshwater) on the fate of anthropogenic pollutants; measuring reaction rates at ice surfaces; investigating the role of surfaces such as buildings and roads on chemistry in cities; and monitoring important chemical reactions indoors. Kahan was recently awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER grant.

 

 

 

 

Christa Kelleher

Dr. Christa Kelleher is a computational hydrologist who models the intersections between hydrology and water quality at the river reach to the watershed scale.  She is interested in understanding how water moves through urban and natural environments, how best to incorporate and represent uncertainty in model applications, and how stream temperatures respond to gradients of urbanization across watershed scales. She earned her graduate degrees from Penn State, and joined the Syracuse University departments of Earth Sciences and Civil Engineering in January 2016.

 

 

 

 

Teng Zeng

Teng Zeng is an assistant professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is interested in studying the occurrence and fate of organic contaminants of emerging concern in both natural aquatic ecosystems and engineered treatment systems. He is also interested in developing byproduct-free treatment methods to facilitate the decentralized production of drinking water and the beneficial reuse of wastewater. His work typically involves field sampling and laboratory experiments.

 

 

 

 

 

Peter Plumley

Dr. Peter W. Plumley is the Chief Program Officer at the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science & Technology and Research Associate Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Syracuse University.  Dr. Plumley’s Research has been in the areas of plate tectonics and application of paleomagnetic techniques to regional tectonics.  Most recent and active research is focused on educational issues of secondary students related to motivation and the Science of Learning.  Dr. Plumley was honored with the “2003 College Educator of the Year,” by the Technology Alliance of Central New York and the “Post Standard Achievement Award” in 2011.

 

 

Other Participants:

 

Sharon Dotger

Sharon Dotger is an Associate Professor of Science Education and coordinator for science teacher education programs and doctoral study in science education at Syracuse University. Her scholarship addresses science teacher learning, particularly as it emerges through teacher participation in lesson study. She collaborates with classroom teachers in lesson study and has engaged in over 15 open research lessons with the local teachers. Sharon teaches science content courses, as well as courses in science teaching methods, science education research, teacher learning, and curriculum studies. Sharon’s work has been published in research journals such as The Elementary School Journal and Science Education, as well as practitioner journals such as Science and Children and Science Scope.

 

 

Janet Marsden

Dr. Janet Marsden’s research specializations include computational methods, geospatial modeling, urbanization effects on ecosystem resilience and sustainability, science and technical communication, GRSS, adaptation of citizen science, crowdsourcing and social media for emergency response, smart city technology and cyberinfrastructure design. She has 20+ years of experience in project management, computer programming, systems software design and development, data science, statistical analysis and information system security for the federal government (Depts. of Defense, Commerce and Interior), cities of Hartford CT, Auburn NY and Syracuse NY, Cornell University and several Fortune 500 companies. Her current project is Data Manager and acting lead for the Computing and Visualization Working Group for Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN), NSF

 

 

 

Mario Montesdeoca

Mario Montesdeoca is the laboratory manager of the Center for Environmental Systems Engineering (CESE). He maintains laboratory operations, coordinates laboratory usage and develops, and implements new sampling and analytical methods. He coordinates the training and demonstration of capability for new equipment users. Mario supports grant writing by providing cost analyses of laboratory usage and material consumptions.

 

 

 

 

 

Scott Shablak

Scott Shablak is Director of the Office of Professional Research and Development in the Syracuse University School of Education. He conducts formative and summative evaluations to support the grant work of higher education faculty, P-12 education, health and human service and economic development foundations and governmental agencies. He has conducted numerous NSF evaluations for the College of Engineering at Syracuse University, Cornell University, among others.

 

 

 

 

Carol Stokes-Cawley, Program Coordinator, provides student support in the form of communication and program coordination for the Urban Water Summer Research Program.  Ms. Stokes-Cawley currently also coordinates SU’s Summer High School Research Internship Program.  Prior to coming to Syracuse University, she worked 10 years as an environmental educator at the Montezuma Audubon Center and Baltimore Woods Natural Area and 9 years as a Compliance Officer for the Environmental Project Agency Region III