Rutgers Climate and Environmental Change Initiative

Climate Researchers at Rutgers

Climate research at Rutgers takes place in many departments and schools across the university. Below is a listing of Rutgers faculty members who are engaged in climate change research. If you would like to be added to the directory, please contact us.

	Dr. Clinton Andrews Bloustein School of Public Policy Research Interests: Use of technical knowledge in environmental decisionmaking; Environmental Management; Energy policy; Social science aspects of industrial ecology;
	Dr. Jonathan Adams Department of Biological Sciences (Newark) Research Interests: Jonathan Adams has a background in Botany and Quaternary Geology. He has published work on Quaternary extinctions, human migrations and also the carbon cycle. His interests in current global change include the carbon balance on vegetation on a range of scales. He recently published a book: Vegetation-Climate Interaction, with Springer.
	Dr. Gail Ashley Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences Research Interests: Gail Ashley, Earth and Planetary Sciences, in conjunction with graduate and undergraduate students has been conducting research in the East African Rift Valley to understand the paleoenvironmental context of early humans. Interpretations of the climate and the geological record of freshwater resources in this arid region provide information on the physical conditions existing in areas where human evolution took place. It may also provide some answers on why human migrated out-of-Africa as early as nearly 2 million years ago. She is collaborating with an international team studying human evolution from fossil and stone tool records at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Another interdisciplinary project is with Rutgers archaeologists studying the Holocene record on the margins of Lake Turkana (northen Kenya) to see if there is a possible link between subsistence strategies used by people (hunter-gatherer, fishing or pastoralism) and climate or climate change.
	Dr. Eleanor Bochenek Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory Research Interests: Commercial and recreational marine fisheries research; Fisheries management; Education and outreach;
	Dr. Tony Broccoli Department of Environmental Sciences Research Interests: Climate models are powerful tools for improving our fundamental understanding of the climate system and predicting its future behavior. My research involves the use of climate models to understand the processes that are responsible for climate change. A primary focus is the simulation of past climate change. The paleoclimate record contains abundant evidence of changes in climate that are much larger than those that have occurred during the relatively short period (less than 150 years) for which we have modern climate data. Understanding the mechanisms responsible for these past changes can help us better anticipate the changes in climate that lie ahead. My research on past climates covers a broad range of topics including the climate of the last ice age, the response of climate to changes in the earth's orbit, and the response of the tropical circulation to high-latitude climate forcing. In addition to paleoclimate modeling, my research also involves topics such as climate sensitivity and feedbacks, the contributions of natural and anthropogenic forcing to changes in climate that have been observed during the 20th century, and the mechanisms underlying the response of hydrologic extremes to global warming.
	Dr. Martin Bunzl Department of Philosophy and Rutgers Initiative on Climate and Social Policy Research Interests: Martin Bunzl directs the Rutgers Initiative on Climate and Social Policy. His research interests are at the intersection of climate change and philosophy. Details of his current activity can be found at http://philosophy.rutgers.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=97&Itemid=210.
	Dr. Lee Clarke Department of Sociology Research Interests: Lee Clarke is researching how different kinds of scientists tried to issue "warnings" that a catastrophe like Katrina would result from the destruction of the wetlands. Clarke has written about the Y2K problem, risk communication, panic, civil defense, evacuation, community response to disaster, organizational failure, and near earth objects. His last book "Worst Cases" (University of Chicago Press) dealt with how cultures, organizations, and groups conceive "the worst."
	Dr. Enrique Curchitser Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences Research Interests: General circulation of the ocean; Dynamics of eastern boundary currents and shelf circulation; Sea-ice ocean interactions; Effects of bathymetry; Coupled biophysical and numerical modeling;
	Dr. Kristy Dahl Department of Environmental Sciences Research Interests: Tropical paleoclimate reconstructions; Climate modeling; Science communications and data presentation; Climate change solutions;
	Dr. James Eaves Department of Agricultural, Food & Resource Economics Research Interests:
	Dr. Joan Ehrenfeld Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources Research Interests: Wetland ecology; Ecosystems Ecology; Plant-soil interactions;
	Dr. Dina Fonseca Department of Entomology Research Interests: Infectious Diseases; Mosquito Control; Evolutionary Ecology;
	Dr. Jennifer Francis Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences Research Interests: My research interests include the use satellite data to retrieve information about the Arctic climate system. In particular, I have adapted observations from satellite-based sounding instruments to study the atmospheric structure, cloud properties, water vapor amount and transport, precipitation, surface-atmosphere energy exhange, and wind fields in the Arctic, and how these characteristics have changed in recent decades. My colleagues and I are studying the role of the atmosphere in driving sea ice loss in the Arctic, both in the past from observations and in the future based on global climate model simulations. We are also investigating the interactions between the rapidly changing Arctic and the global climate system.
	Dr. Scott Glenn Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences Research Interests: Developing regional-scale coastal ocean observing networks;
	Dr. Qizhong (George) Guo Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research Interests: Hydraulics, hydrology, and water quality. Engineering and management measures to mitigate impacts of flood, drought, water quality degradation, sea level rise, and excessive strain on water infrastructure.
	Dr. Dale Haidvogel Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences Research Interests: Physical oceanography; Numerical ocean circulation modeling; Coupled modeling of regional climate impacts;
	Priscilla Hayes, Esq. Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics Research Interests: Priscilla E. Hayes, Esq. leads a statewide food and organics recycling initiative, one of whose aims is to reduce methane production across New Jersey and the region through creation of a local industry which manufactures bioproducts from food/organic waste. She is working on to assure that greenhouse gas reduction calculators such as the Waste Reduction Model (WARM) created by the United States Environmental Protection Agency reflect the full impact of methane reductions and other affiliated greenhouse gas reductions from various food/organics waste recycling options, not limited to composting. Ms. Hayes also coordinates the Global Warming Seminar for the SEBS Educational Opportunity Fund-Office of Special Programs (SEBS EOF-OSP). As part of this coordination, she works with the other faculty and staff of that program to coordinate the teaching of English/Writing, Mathematics and Critical Thinking using Global Warming as a focus area. Students are asked to create model policy formulations as one of the products of the Global Warming Seminar.
	Dr. David Hughes Department of Human Ecology Research Interests: Political; Ecology; Conservation; Colonialism; Southern Africa; Race and nature; White identity;
	Dr. Branden B. Johnson Visiting Professor in Departments of Human Ecology, Geography, and the School of Public Health in UMDNJ Research Interests: I'm interested in risk perception and risk communication aspects of climate change mitigation and adaptation, and how these interact with policy issues. "Perception" and "communication" apply not only to the general public, but to scientists, policy makers, and institutional decision makers. I'm particularly interested in how people conceive of and grapple with uncertainty, the considerations they take into account in making decisions and how these might or should inform the design of policy discussions and persuasive messages, and the influence of conceptions of alternative futures, but am open to exploring other avenues. Currently I have a small survey underway examining New Jersey residents' views on selected household energy conservation options and on climate change.
	Dr. Mike Kennish Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences Research Interests: Dr. Michael J. Kennish is an Associate Research Professor in the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers and the Research Coordinator of the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve in Tuckerton, New Jersey. He has conducted extensive research on estuarine and coastal marine environments for many years. The main focus of his work has been the investigation and assessment of anthropogenic impacts on estuarine and coastal marine systems, including those related to climate change effects on biotic communities and natural habitats. While maintaining a wide range of interests in climate change effects, Mike is particularly interested in sea-level rise, coastal erosion, wetland submergence, and the long-term threat of shoreline inundation on coastal communities in New Jersey. He is also interested in examining the effects of climate and sea-level changes on physicochemical processes and other drivers of environmental change in estuarine and coastal marine systems.
	Dr. Richard Lathrop Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources; Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis Research Interests: In trying to improve our understanding of the structure and function of coupled human-environmental systems at broader landscape to regional scales, I have attempted to integrate insights from ecology and geography with the application of geo-spatial technology (remote sensing, geographic information systems, global positioning and spatial analysis). While wide-ranging in interest, my work is largely focused on the mapping and modeling of land use/land cover change and quantifying the potential consequences for ecological and natural resources systems at landscape and regional scales both here locally in the state of New Jersey and the Mid-Atlantic region, as well as more broadly nationally and internationally. More recently, I have been examining the interaction of land use/land cover and climate change and the implications for carbon sequestration, vegetation community composition as well as human health.
	Dr. Robin Leichenko Department of Geography Research Interests: Dr. Robin M. Leichenko is an Associate Professor and Graduate Director in Geography at Rutgers. Leichenko received a Ph.D. in Geography (1997) and an M.A. in Economics (1995) from Penn State University. Leichenko's research explores the social and economic effects of climate change on cities and regions in advanced and developing countries. She has conducted empirical studies of climate change vulnerability and adaptation in India, Mozambique, Pakistan, and the United States. In 2004, Leichenko was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Oslo where she worked on the development of conceptual and empirical models of regional vulnerability to climate change. Leichenko is also an affiliated member of the IHDP Programme on Global Environmental Change and Human Security (GECHS). Her forthcoming book, co-authored with Dr. Karen O'Brien of the University of Oslo, is titled Environmental Change and Globalization: Double Exposures (Oxford University Press, 2008). The book presents a conceptual framework for analyzing the interactions between climate change and globalization, and it illustrates, through case studies, how these interactions create situations of "double exposure." The book is available from Oxford University Press.
	Dr. Kevin Lyons Director of Purchasing Research Interests: Dr. Kevin Lyons is the Director of Purchasing at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and is a Research Professor in Supply Chain Environmental Archeology also at Rutgers University. Dr. Lyons is responsible for all procurement and contracting for the institution and he also conducts research on developing and integrating global environmental, climate, social, economic, ethical criteria and data into supply chain/procurement systems and processes. His work includes environmentally preferable products and services research, designing and implementing local, national and international environmental economic development systems, biobased products-to-energy systems, waste-to-energy systems and environmental and sustainable social policy and financial impact forecasting (e.g. SOX Environmental Impact Reporting). His current research (RU Warm) includes developing and implementing an international climate impact analysis utilizing the global supply chain-to-waste criteria. The production, shipment, use and disposal of goods and services have wide-ranging climate impacts and this research will show how production, consumption and disposal have direct climate impacts.
	Dr. Monica Mazurek Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Center for Advanced Infrastructure & Transportation (CAIT) School of Engineering Research Interests: Carbonaceous aerosols in the lower troposphere are chemically diverse and interact in complex ways with the Earth's energy balance, cloud formation processes, precipitation, and atmospheric oxidizing species. Many sources contribute to carbonaceous aerosols, including anthropogenic and natural primary emission sources. Once airborne, carbonaceous aerosols enter into a complex atmospheric processing system, which modifies, transports, and ultimately oxidizes carbonaceous substances to more soluble forms before they are removed via cloud processing or by dry deposition. As part of this atmospheric processing system, carbonaceous aerosols exert direct and indirect effects on climate. In order for future generations of global climate models to more accurately predict climate change due to increases of anthropogenic greenhouse gases and aerosol loading, current aerosol modules describing and quantifying the aerosols and their processes must be accurately represented. Our research addresses the accurate representation of carbonaceous aerosol as hydrophilic and hydrophobic components of OC and EC present in the Earth's troposphere through laboratory experiments, field measurements, and modeling. We use molecular marker technology to identify anthropogenic, natural, and secondary organic components and to relate the molecular species to OC and BC mass concentrations. Sources of the organic aerosol are evaluated using our extensive molecular marker database (~1500 compounds) and chemical profiles for dominant primary emission sources (wood smoke, motor vehicle combustion, coal combustion, soil, food cooking, marine surface lipids, vegetative waxes, marine lipids) and for common secondary organic compounds (C2-C7 dicarboxylic acids, aliphatic hydroxy acids).
	Dr. Bonnie McCay Department of Human Ecology Research Interests: Human behavior and institutions in relation to natural environments; Property rights and common resources; Public participation in environmental policy; Marine fisheries management and coastal communities;
	Janice McDonnell Department of 4-H Youth Development Research Interests: Ocean Science Literacy; Marine sciences education and outreach;
	Dr. Jim Miller Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences Research Interests: Research involves use of global climate models to examine how climate might change in the future as atmospheric greenhouse gases increase, with an emphasis on changes in the hydrologic cycle, the Arctic climate system, and mountainous regions. There are two primary components of the research: one is on the impact of climate change on large river systems, and the other is on the role of climate feedbacks in high northern latitudes and at high altitudes. Of particular interest are water and energy budgets and interactions and feedbacks among climate variables such as clouds, atmospheric water vapor, radiation, atmospheric and oceanic transport, and changes in permafrost and active layer depths in high northern latitudes. Related teaching activities include an interdisciplinary upper level undergraduate seminar course on climate change.
	Dr. Ken Miller Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences Research Interests: Cenozoic sea level and paleoceanographic changes; Integration of isotopic, bio-, magneto-, and seismic stratigraphic evidence; New Jersey Coastal Plain Drilling Project;
	Dr. Karl Nordstrom Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences Research Interests: Beach and dune processes; Landforms;
	Dr. Karen O'Neill Department of Human Ecology Research Interests: Environmental policy; U.S. History; Political sociology; Comparative and historical sociology; Environmental justice; Environmental sociology;
	Dr. Frank Popper Bloustein School of Public Policy Research Interests: For over two decades I and my wife Deborah Popper, a geographer at the City University of New York/College of Staten Island and Princeton University, have done research on the land-use future of the Great Plains, an area historically vulnerable to climate change. We are now broadening out our research to cover other vulnerable areas such as the Corn Belt, the Lower Mississippi Delta, northern New England, central Appalachia and central Alaska.
	John Posey Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy Research Interests:
	Dr. Norbert Psuty Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences Research Interests: Coastal geomorphology; Shoreline erosion; Coastal zone management;
	Dr. Ying Fan Reinfelder Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Department of Environmental Sciences Research Interests: My research focus on the terrestrial water cycle at continental to global scales, its responses and feedbacks to the climate system through multiple pathways, e.g., physical (movement of water and latent heat), biophysical (ecosystem transpiration), and biogeochemical (CO2 and CH4 flux from terrestrial ecosystems). I investigate the pathways through which water affects the climate and the ecosystems, and incorporate the most important pathways into climate and biosphere models to improve our reconstruction of past, and prediction of future, climate changes.
	Dr. Dave Robinson Department of Geography Research Interests: Dave Robinson is chairman of the Department of Geography at Rutgers and is New Jersey's State Climatologist. His research interests are in applied climate, especially related to New Jersey, and in climate dynamics and change, particularly focused on global snow cover. His snow research is currently funded by NOAA and NASA, while funding from several state agencies and the US Forest Service, along with support from NJAES helps support his state efforts. He provides climate services to NJ interests and the snow community via websites that may be accessed at: http://climate.rutgers.edu.
	Dr. Alan Robock Department of Environmental Sciences Research Interests: Pro. Robock's research involves many aspects of climate change. He conducts both observational analyses and climate model simulations. His current research focuses on geoengineering, regional atmosphere-hydrology modeling, climatic effects of nuclear weapons, soil moisture variations, the effects of volcanic eruptions on climate, detection and attribution of human effects on the climate system, and the impacts of climate change on human activities. He has published more than 250 articles on his research, including more than 150 peer-reviewed papers.
	Dr. Yair Rosenthal Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences and Department of Geology Research Interests: Marine biogeochemistry; Paleoceanography; Global geochemical cycles; Cycling of heavy metals in estuarine and coastal environments;
	Dr. Tom Rudel Department of Human Ecology Research Interests: Tom Rudel has a longstanding interest in processes of land use conversion, both in the tropics and in the temperate, more affluent countries. He has carried out preliminary analyses of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with these processes. He hopes to carry out more exhaustive analyses of these patterns in the near future.
	Dr. Laura Schneider Department of Geography Research Interests: Laura Schneider's research focuses on human-environment relations affecting patterns and processes of land-use land-cover change. Her specific research interests are monitoring and modeling land transformation, biophysical remote sensing and ecological dynamics of plant invasions.
	Dr. Oscar Schofield Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences Research Interests: Marine biology; Ocean optics; Primary productivity in aquatic ecosystems; Physiological ecology of phytoplankton; Integrated ocean observatories;
	Dr. Hilary Sigman Department of Economics Research Interests: I conduct empirical research on the design of economic incentives for environmental protection, including "green taxes." I have recently written on legal liability for climate-related damages and am currently studying tax incentives for hybrid vehicles. Another recent strand of my research examines the presence and conditions for cross-country cooperation with transboundary pollution.
	Dr. Elisabeth Sikes Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences Research Interests: My research interests are principally in the field of paleoceanography - the study of long-term (thousands of years) climate variability in the ocean environment. Primarily, I study past sea surface temperatures and changes in deep circulation that impact climate. The unifying theme in my research is the interconnection of carbon cycling, ocean circulation, and global climate. Working in both modern environments and ancient sedimentary settings, primarily the late Quaternary, I employ isotopic (13C, 18O, and 14C ) and organic biomarker (Uk37) geochemical techniques as proxies for sea surface temperature and tracers for circulation change on centennial to millennial time scales.
	Dr. Gera Stenchikov Department of Environmental Sciences Research Interests: Mathematical modeling of multi-scale dynamic and physical processes in the climate system; Non-linear mechanisms that govern climate variability and climate change;
	Dr. Kevin St. Martin Department of Geography Research Interests: Economic geography; Diverse economies; Political ecology; Community and commons; Critical cartographies; GIS;
	Dr. Judith Weis Department of Biological Sciences, Newark Research Interests: Responses of estuarine organisms to stresses, particularly heavy metal contaminants;
	Dr. John Wilkin Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences Research Interests: Ocean modeling and prediction; Mesoscale satellite remote sensing; Physical-biological interactions in the ocean;
	Dr. James Wright Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences Research Interests: I work on past deep water circulation and climate changes. In my lab we measure the stable isotope values in foraminifera as well as other sedimentary proxies like percent CaCO3 and SiO2. Using cores collected largely from the North Atlantic, my research focuses on variations over three time-scales. Working with my graduate students, we have looked at century to millennial-scale variations over the past 20 kyr. We use cores over a wide depth range to assess the past buoyancy state of NADW. We are also involved with longer-term changes over the past 2 myr using cores from Ocean Drilling Program. Finally, I continue to work on the relationship between deep-water circulation, climate and tectonics or myr time scales.

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