Welcome to the Eco-Chemistry lab page!
To understand my research, it is important to know a bit about my background. I have experience in biology/ecology, hydrology/hydraulics, and environmental chemistry/engineering, and inorganic geochemistry. While these fields seem disparate, environmental problems do not fit nicely into discrete boxes or individual packages. There are many problems that simply cannot be solved with the tools provided by a single discipline, and each provides different tools and ways of thinking about ecosystem health. As an engineer, I find it incredibly useful to draw on to tools used in ecology and chemistry, and vice versa.
My interests focus on understanding how ecosystem health is driven by complex interactions between biological, chemical, and physical processes. Often, synergistic/antagonistic interactions among environmental variables can mask the true relationship between variables. Without understanding these complex interactions, we can misinterpret our data, which can lead to poor management decisions or designs.
In laboratory experiments, there is a high degree of variable control, but results from laboratory experiments can not always be extrapolated to understand the environment. To understand what is happening in the environment, we must embrace environmental heterogeneity and utilize sophisticated computational tools that are capable of teasing apart variable interactions.
I am always looking for talented and enthusiastic students. If you are interested in broad scale environmental problems, please send me an email with a brief description of yourself and a CV.