Graduate Degree Programs
Climate & Energy
Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our day and is directly linked with the amount and types of energy we currently use and will use. Projected changes in climate will impact critical ecosystems, create challenges for coping with more frequent extreme weather events, and negatively influence health around the world. Those with the fewest resources - particularly people of color, low-income and indigenous communities - will be the most affected.
- C&E Research Area Leader: Timothy Volk
Climate change and energy use are wicked problems that are challenging to resolve due to incomplete information and different perspectives on causes, impacts and solutions. Tackling these challenges requires a transdisciplinary approach, which involves knowledge integration across academic disciplines and with practitioners, managers and other decision makers. The Climate and Energy (C&E) Research Area involves faculty ranging from climate scientists, human dimension experts, ecologists, engineers, landscape designers, policy experts, and renewable energy specialists all of whom are actively involved in addressing climate and energy issues. C&E GPES students work with faculty from multiple disciplines and perspectives to tackle a wide range of research questions related to climate change and energy.
Examples of the tools and concepts that are commonly used in Climate and Energy Research Area include:
- Atmospheric Science
- Biomass and Bioenergy
- Carbon Storage and Cycles
- Climate Change
- Energy Justice, Planning and Policy
- Life Cycle and Geospatial Analyses
- Renewable Energy and Storage
- Sustainable Materials and Waste Management
- Technoeconomic Analysis
- Urban Sustainability and Resilience
Participating Faculty in Climate and Energy (C&E)
| Name | Research Keywords | |
|---|---|---|
| Aidan Ackerman | acackerm@esf.edu | visual impact assessment, landscape adaptation and mitigation, 3D modeling, rendering, virtual reality, digital fabrication, GIS, BIM, CAD |
| Colin Beier | cbeier@esf.edu | climate science, natural climate solutions, forest carbon, landscape modeling, greenhouse gas accounting, climate policy |
| Josh Cousins | jcousins@esf.edu | political-industrial ecology, energy transitions, climate change adaptation and mitigation, energy and climate politics and planning |
| Paul Crovella | plcrovella@esf.edu | net zero construction, energy efficiency, embodied energy in construction |
| Klaus Doelle | kdoelle@esf.edu | alternative energy (gasification, fermentation), biomass processing, hydropower, system process design and development |
| Martin Dovciak | mdovciak@esf.edu | climate change impacts on forest ecosystems, climate-vegetation relations and feedbacks, forest dynamics, microclimate |
| John Drake | jedrake@esf.edu | climate change, forest carbon, tree growth, managing ecosystems for carbon |
| Theodore Endreny | te@esf.edu | modeling urban heat adaptation, nature-based solutions, building energy loads, i-Tree Cool Air & Energy software development |
| Andrea Feldpausch-Parker | amparker@esf.edu | energy communication, public participation in energy systems, energy democracy, decision-making |
| Anne Godfrey | acgodfre@esf.edu | emergent technologies and decentralized energy systems, urban design, energy independence, energy justice, equitable energy access |
| Cole Gross | cdgross@esf.edu | Sustainable ecosystem management, soil health, soil carbon, ecosystem carbon cycling, greenhouse gas fluxes, soil-carbon-climate feedbacks, soil-root interactions, agroforestry |
| Danielle Kloster | dpkloste@esf.edu | human dimensions of natural resources management, sustainable energy management, family forest owners, large-scale renewable energy siting, forest carbon management, recreation |
| Chuck Kroll | cnkroll@esf.edu | hydrologic change, drought assessment, systems engineering, ecosystem service assessment, decision support systems |
| Deepak Kumar | dkumar02@esf.edu | bio-based circular economy, bioplastics, fermentation, enzymatic hydrolysis, bioprocess modeling, techno-economic analysis |
| Valerie Luzadis | vluzadis@esf.edu | social-ecological systems, ecological economics and policy, climate and energy transitions and values |
| Robert Malmsheimer | rwmalmsh@esf.edu | bioenergy policy, bioeconomy, forests and climate change, forest carbon accounting, translating peer-reviewed science for policymakers |
| Huiting Mao | hmao@esf.edu | atmospheric chemistry, air quality, climate change |
| Michael Mikulewicz | mmikulew@esf.edu | Just/Equitable transitions, Energy democracy, Energy justice, Fuel/Energy poverty, Urban sustainability, UNFCCC process, Critical theory (political economy, political ecology, feminist & queer theory), Participatory methods |
| Tim Morin | thmorin@esf.edu | carbon cycle, methane, carbon sequestration, micrometeorology, ecosystem modeling |
| Giorgos Mountrakis | gmountrakis@esf.edu | geospatial modeling, remote sensing, climatic predictions, machine learning |
| Bahram Salehi | bsalehi@esf.edu | large scale remote sensing of wetlands, forests, permafrost and soil moisture, big data analysis, environmental monitoring, UAV |
| Kim Schulz | kschulz@esf.edu | climate change impacts on aquatic ecosystems, lake stratification, adaptation to climate change, lake source cooling |
| Gary Scott | gscott@esf.edu | renewable products and energy; system modeling and optimization; biotechnology for industry |
| Richard Ross Shaker | rrshaker@esf.edu | Environmental & sustainability indicators, sustainable development, landscape ecology, global change; ecological restoration, applied statistics, spatial analysis & modeling |
| Steve Shaw | sbshaw@esf.edu | influence of climate change on hydrology, processes controlling flood and drought, resilience in water infrastructure |
| John Stella | stella@esf.edu | riparian and stream ecology, ecohydrology, restoration, watershed management, ecological modeling, dendroecology, arid-land ecosystems |
| Wendong Tao | wtao@esf.edu | waste-to-energy, anaerobic digestion, greenhouse gas from wastewater treatment, slow pyrolysis |
| Obste Therasme | otherasm@esf.edu | life cycle assessment, sustainable energy systems, biomass for biofuels, energy and bioproducts |
| Timothy Volk | tavolk@esf.edu | bioenergy, biomass, energy crops, life cycle assessment, bioeconomy, renewable energy |
| Endong Wang | ewang01@esf.edu | sustainable infrastructure systems, life cycle performance of structure systems, building energy efficiency, decision making |
| Yaqi You | yyou@esf.edu | sustainable food-energy-water nexus, waste streams-to-valuable resources, biomass, greenhouse gas emission |
| Nathan Young | nyoung07@esf.edu | Hydrology, hydrogeology, ecohydrology, soil physics |