Faculty and Staff

Bayless is a professor of mechanical engineering and part of the graduate faculty in chemical engineering. He is director of the Ohio Coal Research Center, associate director of the Robe Leadership Institute, program manager of the State of Ohio Coal Research Consortium and faculty fellow at the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs. Bayless’ research interests include: the recycling of carbon dioxide emissions by biological sources; the use of coal to produce gas for conversion in solid oxide fuel cells; electrostatic precipitation using novel wet membrane collectors; combustion of solid fuels and slurries; and particulate emissions from coal and waste combustion.

Botte is an associate professor of chemical engineering and director of the Electrochemical Engineering Research Laboratory. She is also affiliated with the Institute for Corrosion and Multiphase Technology and currently serves on the advisory board for the development of a new curriculum in Fuel Cell Technology at Hocking College and Stark State College. Her research interests include: electrochemistry; fuel cells and battery technology; and the application of electrochemistry to generate hydrogen from coal and ammonia.

Bowman is Environmental Projects Manager at the Voinovich School at Ohio University. Bowman has worked on a variety of projects with the Voinovich School’s Environmental and GIS group, including developing an evaluation system for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Mineral Resources Management (ODNR-DMRM) to track successes of acid mine drainage remediation in Huff Run, Raccoon Creek, Monday Creek, and Sunday Creek. She has also worked on the Leading and Moxahala Creek Acid Mine Drainage Abatement and Treatment (AMDAT) plans and developed and taught a “Field Methods for Watershed Characterization” training. Prior to coming to Ohio University, Bowman worked on AMDAT projects with the Wayne National Forest and the non-profit group, Rural Action.

Boyd is a professor and current chair in the Department of Economics. His major fields of study include: natural resources and the environment; public finance; international trade policy; and industrial organization and regulation. Boyd’s research involves constructing computable general equilibrium models and using them to explore the impacts of various environmental and resource problems in both developed and developing countries. Boyd is working on a project with Kevin Crist, Ariaster Chimeli and graduate student Misak Avetisyan examining ozone in central Ohio. Boyd is also a member of the International Energy Economics Association and the American Environmental and Resource Economics Association.

Buckley is an associate professor of geography. He has served as the chair of the Faculty Senate Ecology and Energy Conservation Committee and also as a member of the non-profit organization Rural Action’s Environmental Learning Program Advisory Council. His research interests include: historical geography and environmental history; examining environmental problems using a historical perspective; natural resource conservation; American environmentalism; public lands; the interaction of nature and society; and the effect of coal mining on Appalachia’s forest and water resources.

Chimeli is an assistant professor of economics. He serves on the board of advisors for OU’s environmental studies program, recruits students for the international development program and advises students in Latin American studies. He specializes in environmental economics, researching economic growth and the environment, the economics of water resources and the link between climate forecasts and economic activity. He also does both theoretical and applied research on environmental issues in the transition economies of Eastern Europe and Brazil.

Cohen is the GIS Project Manager at the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs. Cohen is recognized at the Voinovich School for his innovative ideas and problem solving abilities as demonstrated in his leadership in the Athens County GIS Parcel Mapping project, as well as with projects to customize multiple Internet Map Server websites. Cohen has developed a GIS based website for the Athens County Comprehensive Plan, has done extensive mapping of abandoned mine sites, and is working with the Army Corps of Engineers on mapping that looks at the relationship between the geomorphological processes and habitats for least terns and piper plovers in the Upper Missouri River basin.

Conley is the Research Supervisor for the Air Quality Center at the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs. He operates the Athens Supersite which monitors air pollution transported through and deposited in Athens. The monitoring site is the only Supersite in the State of Ohio and the only site collecting mercury deposition and atmospheric background data. Conley also supervises student research that includes the identification of pollution sources and associated atmospheric chemistry. Conley’s interdisciplinary research interests include biogeochemistry, landscape ecology, and environmental restoration in an effort to understand the issues surrounding resource utilization and ecosystem services on both local and global scales.

Crist is a professor of chemical engineering and a faculty fellow at the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs. He is also director of the Air Quality Center at the Institute for Sustainable Energy & the Environment, which supports and coordinates research, educational programs and community outreach in order to meet the challenges of protecting environmental quality and jobs in the Ohio River Valley Region. Crist’s research interests include: urban- and regional-scale air-quality monitoring; emission inventory assessments; and photochemical, dispersion, and radiative transfer modeling.

Deforest is an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental and Plant Biology. Deforest’s research addresses the mechanistic controls of plant litter decomposition by linking the functioning of soil microbial communities and plant biochemistry to ecosystem-level processes. Deforest is an investigator with the Ohio Soil Ecology Collaboratory.

Dyer is an associate professor in the Department of Geography. His expertise is in biogeography, landscape ecology and forest dynamics. Dyer’s research focuses on eastern North American forests, especially the patterns that emerge from the interactions of the physical environment, biotic processes and disturbance. He explores vegetation-site relationships to assess the impact of future climatic change and evaluate changes related to historic land use patterns. He examines the role of historic land use in shaping the present-day flora of central Appalachian forests. Dyer is currently serving as a co-PI on an EPA STAR grant that seeks to develop a classification system for gauging stream health.

Patrick Hassett is an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. His research interests are in plankton physiological ecology, focusing in particular on the nutritional ecology of marine and freshwater copepods and cladocerans. His past research has included effects of toxic algae on copepod physiology, and more recently the role of dietary sterol limitation in copepods and cladocerans.

Johnson is an associate professor of biological sciences. Her research interests include: insect physiological ecology; chemical ecology of insect-plant interactions; nutritional physiology; and environmental toxicology and responses of aquatic macroinvertebrates to acid mine drainage. Currently, Johnson is researching the responses of aquatic macroinvertebrates to acid mine drainage; effects of acid stress on functional feeding guilds, development of rapid bioassessment tools using stream macroinvertebrates.

Jokisch is an associate professor of geography. His research interests lie within geography's tradition of nature-society studies, such as agricultural systems, land degradation, cultural change and landscape modification. As an offshoot of his interest in agricultural systems and rural landscapes, he has developed research interests in international migration and population studies. Jokisch's primary regional interest is Latin America, especially the Ecuadorian Andes.

Kim is a research scientist in the Center for Air Quality at Ohio University. He has extensive experience in the area of environmental data analysis, database development, web programming, and chemical transport modeling. He has participated in various projects funded by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Ohio EPA, and the U.S. Department of Energy on the use of air quality data analysis, real-time web-based data retrieval and analysis systems, data visualization, and photochemical grid modeling.

Kremer is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He is the associate director of the Ohio Coal Research Center, chair of the college Curriculum and Assessment Committee and advisor to the Society of Automotive Engineers, the Electric Bobcat Racing Team and the Student Advisory Board. His expertise is in: automotive and advanced propulsion systems; the design of mechanical systems; nonlinear dynamics and simulation; CAD/CAE; and CO2 reduction from power plants emissions. In 2005-2006, he received the prestigious Carnegie Scholarship for Teaching and Learning.

Eung Seok Lee, Ph.D. (Hydrogeology, Indiana University) Lee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences. His research interests include: KMnO4 treatment of DNAPLs in groundwater, especially large, dilute, or deep plumes; smart green technologies for best management of nonpoint source pollution; acid-mine drainage; flow and geochemical evolution of water in karst terrain; isotope hydrology;environmental controlled-release system; and hydrologic modeling.

Lopez is an associate professor in the Department of Geological Sciences. Her research interests include the geochemistry and hydrogeology of geothermal systems, including diffuse soil degassing and heat flow studies. Her areas of research are in Central America (Costa Rica and El Salvador), and in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. She is also interested in environmental problems associated to mining and resource exploitation. In Ohio, she investigates the chemistry, fluid flow and mass transfer associated with acid mine drainage from coal mines.

Manring is an associate professor of political science. She is also the director of the Environmental Studies Certificate Program and associate director of the Master of Science in Environmental Studies Program. Her research interests include: the institutionalization of collaborative dispute resolution processes in natural resource management; and the organizational and political dimensions of ecosystem management.

Mapes is associate professor emerita of Environmental and Plant Biology and recently retired as the director of the Master of Science in Environmental Studies Program. Currently, she is the assistant director of the Paleobotanical Herbarium and is affiliated with the OU Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Her research interests include: paleobiology and paleoecology of ancient conifers and their environmental stresses throughout geologic time; integrated geological and botanical investigations including plant anatomy, morphology and systematics combined with analyses of depositional environments, geochemistry, taxonomy and plant/animal associations in different terrestrial and marine ecosystems. She is also interested in neoenvironmental studies in physical and life sciences, as well as environmental monitoring and environmental policy decisions.

Marcus is Ohio University's first Sustainability Coordinator. The mission of the Office of Sustainability is to improve the efficiency of university facilities, green our practices and processes, and strengthen our campus-wide culture of environmental mindfulness. In addition to coordinating various outreach and education projects on campus, Marcus also oversees the Ohio University Ecohouse, a demonstration home featuring affordable green technology and sustainable living.

McCament is the Raccoon Creek Watershed Coordinator at the Voinovich School. As Coordinator, he manages all grants, student work and faculty research relating to the Raccoon Creek Watershed Project, dealing specifically with acid mine drainage reclamation. McCament is currently supervising the Ohio EPA 319 Implementation Grant for Flint Run.

Miller is the Director for Energy and Environmental Programs for the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs and manages the Consortium for Energy, Economics and the Environment (CE3). He has served on several local and statewide committees dealing with surface water management and environmental protection and acts as a liaison between state and federal agencies and local stakeholders interested in improving the natural environment in southeastern Ohio. He also mentors undergraduate and graduate students to internalize knowledge and apply it in project-based experiences; facilitates the development and maintenance of multidisciplinary, multi-agency partnerships; and manages the design, contracting, implementation and evaluation of projects for external clients.

Morrone is an associate professor, coordinator of the nationally-accredited Environmental Health Sciences program, and director of the Environmental Studies Program. Her research interests include: environmental and occupational health and safety; public perception of environmental risk; the role of the environmental health scientist in policy decision making; risk and uncertainty in decision making; and underserved audiences and environmental education. She is a registered sanitarian, and has served as an expert panelist on risk issues for the U.S. EPA and the American Chemical Council.

Prudich is a professor in the department of chemical engineering. He is the director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Environment and the founding program manager of the Ohio Coal Research Consortium. His research interests include: flue-gas scrubbing; colloid and surface science; separations; fluidization; and coal liquefaction.

Rankin is a senior research associate at the Center for Applied Bioassessment and Biocriteria at the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs. He has worked on understanding the influence of multiple stressors on aquatic life in streams, development and application of stream habitat assessment methodologies, development and application of biological criteria, development of biocriteria-based chemical criteria for aquatic life (e.g., nutrients, sediment, metals, etc) and developing processes to improve the accuracy and efficacy of TMDLs for nutrients and sediments.

Riefler is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering. At the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Applied Research Conference (ARC) 2005, he served on the committee and served as editor of proceedings. His research interests include: the biodegradation of TNT and other nitroaromatic compounds; acid mine drainage treatment; iron nanoparticles for the cleanup of groundwater pollution; phytoremediation; sediment transport in streams; and the use of molecular tools to identify bacterial communities in the environment.

Roosenburg is an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. His research interest is in the evolution of vertebrate life histories. Roosenburg uses a combination of demographic, experimental and phylogenetic techniques to study how historical and ecological processes produce variation in life history traits within and among individuals, populations and species.

Guarav Sinha, Ph.D (Geography, SUNY at Buffalo)Sinha is an associate professor in the Department of Geography. Hi8s research interests are in the field of Geographic Information Science. He is currently researching methods for automated extraction and semantic characterization of cognitively salient topographic eminences. His other research interests include GIS database modeling, cartographic generalization, terrain modeling, spatial statistics, multi-criteria analysis, and participatory frameworks for GIS.

Springer is an assistant professor in the Department of Geological Sciences. Springer researches the changing state of human-impacted rivers, particularly the effects of changes in water and sediment regimes, with implications for river management and regulation. He studies headwater streams on the western margin of the Appalachian Mountains, in particular how basin size influences channel type and morphology for different rock types. Springer is currently working on an EPA-funded project focused on stream health in southeastern Ohio.

Stuart is an associate professor and the assistant chair of the Department of Civil Engineering with a dual appointment in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Stuart currently serves as the director of the Biofuels Research Laboratory and is an associate director of the Ohio Coal Research Center. His research interests include: reduction and treatment of acid mine drainage; bioremediation and pollution prevention strategies; bacterial movement in soils; and biological treatment of hazardous wastes. Stuart also directs a national student environmental engineering competition.

Thoma is an Ohio University researcher in the Great Lakes Wetlands Project. He was associated with Ohio EPA for 22 years where he developed biological and habitat criteria. Past research includes the Obed Wild and Scenic River National Parks Project, the Lake Erie Conservation Symposium, Crayfish and Shrimp of Ohio, and the Indiana Burrowing Crayfish Project. He has worked on the Great Lakes for over 30 years and has published numerous papers discussing Lake Erie fish communities and shoreline habitat quality. He has studied crayfish taxonomy, life history, ecology, and conservation for 35 years and is associated with The Ohio State University Museum of Biological Diversity where he works as a volunteer in the crustacean range.

Vis is an associate professor of phycology in the Department of Environmental and Plant Biology. She serves as the department's graduate chair, the coordinator of the Honors Tutorial College program in environmental and plant biology, and the director of the DNA analysis facility. Her research interests include: freshwater algal ecology and evolution; and systematics and biogeography of freshwater red algae and the impacts of acid mine drainage on stream periphyton communities in southeastern Ohio. She collaborates with other researchers to study the impacts of acid mine drainage on aquatic life and hydrogeology of these streams, in order to contribute to a more complete understanding of acid mine drainage pollution effects on ecosystems.

Weinberg is a professor of political science, founding director of the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs and faculty director of the Ohio University Executive Leadership Institute. His research interests include: public budgeting; financial management; public administration; strategic leadership; and management and performance measurement in the public and non-profit sectors.

Welch is a research associate for the Consortium for Energy, Economic and the Environment (CE3) at the Ohio University Voinovich School. Welch serves as a coordinator for externally-funded projects and research endeavors related to energy for CE3. Additionally, Welch is a liaison between the Voinovich School and external academic, non-profit, public, and private sectors and promotes Ohio University's advanced energy expertise to enhance protection of environmental resources. She has also served as a project coordinator for Ohio University's College of Osteopathic Medicine and previously worked for Natsource, LLC and Environmental Defense Fund.

White is an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. He has research interests in phylogeography, fisheries genetics and conservation genetics of freshwater fishes. As part of his field research, White measures genetic variation and identifies the historical and ecological influences on its distribution. His studies include: stock structure in Ohio River walleye using mtDNA and microsatellite DNA variation; population genetics and systematics in the least brook lamprey; population genetic structure in the stonecat; social and genetic structure in small mammals; and conservation genetics.

Womeldorf is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. She is also involved with the Ohio Coal Research Center and the Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Environment. Her research interests include measurement and calculations of the wind energy resource in complex terrain locations like southeast Ohio. She has additional experience in the areas of fluid mechanics, heat transfer, combustion, fire sciences and engineering education research. Womeldorf is director of the Wind Energy Assessment and Visualization research team.

Young is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. She is the faculty advisor for the Ohio University chapter of Omega Chi Epsilon (the chemical engineering honor society) and for the Chemical Engineering Graduate Student Organization. Young’s research interests include finding a better understanding of the chemistry of the troposphere in North America; the way human activities affect this chemistry; and the effects of atmospheric chemistry on human endeavors. She has been involved in major regional ozone investigations such as the Southern Oxidant Study, as well as studying chemistry in remote areas such as northern Michigan, Saskatchewan, and the Arctic.