- Faculty Research Areas
- Environmental Sciences
- Geobiology
- Geochronology & Thermochronology
- Geophysics
- Low Temperature Geochemistry
- Oceanography
- Paleoclimate & Climate Change
- Paleontology
- Petrology & High Temperature Geochemistry
- Sedimentology & Stratigraphy
- Structural Geology & Tectonics
- Laboratories, Facilities, and Research Groups
- Laboratory Tour Videos
Environmental science research sits at the interface of geological processes and ecosystems. Research in this area is inherently interdisciplinary as workers use many different methods and tools to investigate the environment. As a result, environmental science research happens in many schools and units on campus. In our department, work in this area includes studying carbon cycling in the Arctic, environmental mineral surface reactivity such as the oxidation of sulfide surfaces and its relation to acid mine drainage, mercury cycling and mercury isotopic variations in biotic and abiotic systems, societal resilience and natural hazards.
Faculty | Specialties | Associated Laboratories and Research Groups |
Udo Becker | Mineral surface science, computational mineralogy, actinide geochemistry, principles of redox kinetics, biomineralization. | Surface Geochemistry and Computational Mineralogy Group |
Joel Blum | Isotope Geochemistry, Geochemistry of heavy metals, mercury in the environment, geoarcheology, forest biogeochemistry. | |
Rose Cory | Photochemistry, biogeochemistry, carbon cycle, freshwater, Arctic. | Research Website |
Greg Dick | Environmental microbiology, microbial mats, Earth's oxygenation, harmful cyanobacterial blooms, Great Lakes. | Michigan Geomicrobiology Lab |
Jenan Kharbush | Microbial Biogeochemistry, nitrogen cycling, harmful algal blooms, Compound-Specific Stable Isotope Analysis, Microbial Metabolomics | Microbial Biogeochemistry Lab |
Nathan Sheldon | Paleosols, terrestrial biogeochemistry, Precambrian geobiology, paleoecology. | Continental Environments Research Group |
Affiliated Faculty | Specialties | Primary Affiliation | Associated Laboratories and Research Groups |
Gretchen Keppel-Aleks | Climate and Space Sciences Engineering | Carbon Cycle Research Group | |
Kerri Pratt | Chemistry, Polar Regions, Snow, Atmosphere | Chemistry | Pratt Lab |
Allison Steiner | Regional Climate, Land-Atmosphere Interactions, Atmospheric Chemistry | Climate and Space Sciences Engineering | Research Group |