Select Researcher Profiles
Mick Dalrymple
Implementing energy efficiency on an urban scale
Mick Dalrymple is the ASU project manager for Energize Phoenix, a $25 million federally funded program to upgrade the downtown Phoenix core for significant energy savings. He cofounded the Arizona chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, served two terms on USGBC’s national board, and is a LEED Accredited Professional in both the Building Design & Construction and the Homes rating systems. Dalrymple is a graduate of the Thunderbird School of Global Management and ASU’s MBA program and has founded or cofounded three companies: a.k.a. Green Environmental Building Supplies, a.k.a. Green Services, and Desert Moon Productions. He also contributed to development of the ICC-700 National Green Building Standard.
Dr. Jianguo Wu
Creating resilient landscapes:
From urban places to the grasslands of Genghis Khan
Jianguo Wu is a Senior Sustainability Scientist in the Global Institute of Sustainability, a professor in the School of Sustainability, and a Dean’s Distinguished Professor of Landscape Ecology and Sustainability Science in the School of Life Sciences, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He is known internationally for his research and teaching in the fields of landscape and urban ecology and as editor-in-chief of the interdisciplinary journal, Landscape Ecology. Wu has been honored with the 2011 Outstanding Scientific Achievements Award from the International Association for Landscape Ecology, the 2010 Distinguished Landscape Ecologist Award from the U.S. Association for Landscape Ecology, and the 2006 Award for International Scientific Cooperation from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Kristin Mayes, J.D.
Showing the way to a sustainable energy future
Kristin Mayes is a Senior Sustainability Scholar in the Global Institute of Sustainability and a professor of practice in the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law where she is director of the Program on Law and Sustainability. From 2003 to 2010 she served on the Arizona Corporation Commission – the state’s utility regulatory agency. As chair of the commission she coauthored Arizona’s ambitious renewable energy and energy efficiency standards.
Dr. Eric Williams
Forecasting success of new energy technologies
Eric Williams is a Senior Sustainability Scientist in the Global Institute of Sustainability and an assistant professor in both the School of Sustainability and the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. He is best known for his work in life-cycle assessment, particularly the environmental impacts of recycled computer hardware. He also investigates energy topics such as the effects of development and urbanization on energy demand and forecasting technological change and growth. Dr. Williams teaches courses covering industrial ecology, design for sustainability, and sustainable consumption.
Dr. Nalini Chhetri
Guiding action for climate change and development
Nalini Chhetri is a Senior Sustainability Scientist in the Global Institute of Sustainability, Climate Change Science Manager in the Center for Integrated Solutions for Climate Challenges, Research Fellow in the Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes, advisor to GlobalResolve, and a lecturer in the School of Letters and Sciences. She has worked in sustainable development in Nepal, India, Thailand, Ghana, and Vietnam and has frequently consulted for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Dr. Michael Hanemann
Assessing the cost of climate change
Michael Hanemann is a Distinguished Sustainability Scientist in the Global Institute of Sustainability and Julie A. Wrigley Sustainability Chair in the School of Sustainability and the Department of Economics, W. P. Carey School of Business. His research focuses on environmental economics and policy, water pricing and management, and the economics of adaptive management. In May 2011, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Sharon Harlan
Helping cities adapt to climate change
Sharon Harlan is a Senior Sustainability Scientist in the Global Institute of Sustainability and an associate professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Her work addresses the social impacts of climate change in a rapidly urbanizing environment. She also directs the Phoenix Area Social Survey, which examines the impacts of income and residential segregation on environmental inequalities. Dr. Harlan teaches courses on the social and environmental impacts of industrial production systems and on environmental justice.
Dr. Lee Hartwell
Applying science to improve healthcare and education
Dr. Lee Hartwell is a Distinguished Sustainability Scientist in the Global Institute of Sustainability, Virginia G. Piper Chair of Personalized Medicine and chief scientist in the Center for Sustainable Health at the Biodesign Institute, professor in the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, and professor in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 2001 for his discoveries of a specific class of genes that control the cell cycle – research that provided important clues to cancer.
Dr. James Elser & Dr. Dan Childers
Leading the global Sustainable Phosphorus Initiative
Dr. James Elser and Dr. Dan Childers examine their work as leaders of the global Sustainable Phosphorus Initiative. The element, phosphorus, is essential to all life, but current human use is unsustainable. The Sustainable Phosphorus Initiative – ASU’s solution-driven response to the challenge of phosphorus supply volatility, waste, and pollution – works to build scientific consensus on the challenge, establish a global network of interdisciplinary research focused on phosphorus sustainability, and motivate change in the way we all use phosphorus.
Dr. Osvaldo Sala
Creating scenarios for protecting Earth’s ecosystems
Osvaldo Sala is a Distinguished Sustainability Scientist in the Global Institute of Sustainability and Julie A. Wrigley Chair and Foundation Professor in the School of Sustainability and in the School of Life Sciences. He is recognized as an international leader in ecological and global environmental science through his work as past president of the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment and as coordinating lead author of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. The latter was a five-year research effort by more than 1000 of the world’s leading scientists to assess the state of the world’s ecosystems and the services they provide.
Dr. Ann Kinzig
Ensuring long-term health of global ecosystems
Ann Kinzig is chief research strategist for the Global Institute of Sustainability, affiliated faculty in the School of Sustainability, and professor in the School of Life Sciences. In her research, she studies ecosystem services, interactions between conservation and development, and the resilience of natural resource systems. She also teaches courses in biodiversity and ecosystem services, urban ecology, current environmental issues, and undergraduate research training.
Dr. Matt Fraser
Tracking air pollution to its sources
Dr. Fraser is director of research development for the Global Institute of Sustainability and associate professor in the School of Sustainability. Dr. Fraser’s primary research focuses on urban air quality with particular emphasis on developing methods to identify, monitor, and control ambient air pollution. He also oversees the Institute’s sustainability-related research portfolio and teaches courses on sustainable energy, materials, and technology.
Dr. Margaret Nelson
Unearthing long-term sustainability strategies
Dr. Nelson is a professor in the School of Sustainability and the School of Human Evolution and Social Change and is Vice Dean of Barrett, the Honors College. Her research involves collaborative fieldwork to understand sustainability issues for prehistoric inhabitants of the U.S. Southwest and the lessons that can be learned for contemporary society. Her innovations in teaching have earned her the ASU President’s Professor Award, Professor of the Year honors from the ASU Parents Association, and the Centennial Professor designation by the Associated Students of ASU. Nelson teaches graduate and undergraduate seminars in interdisciplinary research for the School of Sustainability.
Dr. Elinor Ostrom
Finding the key to sustaining shared resources
Dr. Ostrom is a research professor at the School of Human Evolution and Social Change in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and is founding director of the Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity. In 2009, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for her work in economic governance, particularly as it applies to shared resources such as pastures, fisheries, and groundwater basins. Her research examines ways that institutions and users operating at widely different scales can work together to sustain such resources.
Dr. Jin Jo
Optimizing renewable energy for sustainable cities
Dr. Jo graduated from the School of Sustainability in May 2010 as the nation’s first Ph.D. in sustainability. His doctoral studies, chaired by School of Sustainability Assistant Professor Jay Golden, focused on the use of sustainable building strategies and renewable energy to reduce negative impacts of urbanization. In fall 2010 he will join the faculty of Illinois State University.
Dr. Christopher Boone
Applying urban ecosystems to improve lives
Dr. Boone is associate professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change and in the School of Sustainability, where he is also graduate chair. His extensive work in urban sustainability explores the relationships between cities and the natural environment to find ways that urban ecosystems can be strategically focused to reduce the negative effects of world poverty.
Dr. Kevin Dooley
Driving sustainability in consumer products
Dr. Dooley is a professor of Supply Chain Management and Dean’s Council of 100 Distinguished Scholar in the W. P. Carey School of Business, and an affiliated faculty member of the School of Sustainability. He is a world-known expert in applying complexity science to help organizations improve and has consulted with numerous global companies, including Motorola, Raytheon, Citibank, and Toyota. As senior advisor at the Sustainability Consortium, he is responsible for leading sustainability research initiatives in electronic products, home and personal care products, life cycle analysis, and consumer science.
Dr. Arnim Wiek
Building capacity for urban sustainability
Dr. Wiek is an assistant professor in the School of Sustainability. Over the last 10 years, he has conducted sustainability research in Europe, Canada, Sri Lanka, and the U.S. addressing topics such as emerging technologies, urban and regional development, land use conflicts, resource governance, and climate change. His research is carried out in collaboration with partners from government, business, and civil society. He is currently directing research in conjunction with ASU’s Center for Nanotechnology in Society, Decision Center for a Desert City, and Central Arizona—Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research project.
Drs. Christiana Honsberg and Stuart Bowden
Designing transformational solar cells
Professors Christiana Honsberg and Stuart Bowden are the leaders of ASU’s Solar Power Lab. Honsberg is chief scientist of the lab and is considered a pioneer in photovoltaics. Bowden heads the industrial collaboration section of the lab and is credited with improving the efficiency of silicon and crystalline silicon solar cells and the cell manufacturing process.
Dr. Hallie Eakin
Strengthening rural food systems for climate change
Dr. Eakin is an assistant professor in the School of Sustainability investigating economic globalization and rural vulnerability to climate change in Latin America. She has previously consulted with the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on projects in agricultural development and adaptation to climate impacts.
Dr. Bruce Rittmann
Looking to microbes for clean energy and water
Dr. Rittmann is Regents’ Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, affiliated faculty of the School of Sustainability, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. As director of the Center for Environmental Biotechnology at the Biodesign Institute, he has pioneered research on microbiological systems that generate usable energy from waste products and remove pollution from contaminated ecosystems.
Dr. Patricia Gober
Decision-making for climatic uncertainty
Dr. Gober is a professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning and in the School of Sustainability. She is also a Policy Research Associate at Morrison Institute for Public Policy and Co-Director of Decision Center for a Desert City, one of five National Science Foundation-funded centers focused on developing fundamental new knowledge and tools for decision-making under climatic uncertainty.
Dr. Nancy B. Grimm
National Expert on Urban Ecology
Dr. Nancy B. Grimm is Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Science, affiliate faculty member in the School of Sustainability, and Co-Director of the Central Arizona—Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research project (CAP LTER), an interdisciplinary study of the Phoenix metropolitan area.
Dr. Brad Allenby
International Authority on Sustainable Engineering
Dr. Brad Allenby is Lincoln Professor of Engineering and Ethics, Professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, and Professor of Law. He is also Founding Director of the Center for Earth Systems Engineering and Management and an affiliated faculty member of the School of Sustainability. In 2008 he was named a Carnegie Foundation U.S. Professor of the Year. His research addresses Earth systems engineering and the ethical and social issues of emerging technologies.
Dr. B.L. Turner II
Global Leader in Land Change Science
Dr. Billie Lee Turner is the Gilbert F. White Chair of Environment and Society in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning and a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His research addresses climate change by examining the interactions between humans and the environment that lead to deforestation and desertification.
Dr. Devens Gust
Pioneer in Renewable Energy Research
Dr. Devens Gust is Foundation Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry. His research seeks to mimic the key processes of photosynthesis to create usable fuel from the sun.