Faculty and students in the Environmental Science program pursue innovative interdisciplinary research that effectively combines pure and applied science, spanning deep geological timescales to human timescales. Our research programs are well-funded; projects are supported by ample laboratory facilities and instrumentation, including computational infrastructure, and they are topically and geographically diverse. Current projects are underway in many parts of the U.S., Europe, Asia, South America and Antarctica, and include field, laboratory, analytical and modeling components. Most of our research projects involve collaborations with scientists and engineers worldwide as well as here at Vanderbilt.
Environmental Risk Management and Stewardship
Contaminated site restoration
Environmental forensics
Environmental policy, security and long-term stewardship
Environmental risk assessment and communication
Hazardous and radioactive waste management and nuclear environmental systems
Geochemical Processes
Accessory minerals as geochronometers
Cystal growth kinetics
Trace element mobility in Earth-surface environments
Trace elements in sulfide and sulfate minerals
Weathering of nano-structured materials
Magmatic Processes and Crustal Evolution
Magma chamber dynamics and architecture
Origins of magmas
Origin and tectonic redistribution of continental crust
Paleoecology and Coupled Physical-Biological Processes
Biodegradation activity of bacteria in soils and ground water
Evolution of high-latitude ecosystems
Geologic history of burrowing and burrowing animals
Hydrodynamic processes in aquatic ecology
Reliability Analysis
Methods of uncertainty analysis
Multi-scale systems analysis
Reliability assessment
Stochastic processes
Sedimentary Processes
Fluvial, lacustrine, coastal and marine transport and depositional systems
Physical-biological interactions in sedimentary systems
River mechanics and morphodynamics
Transport Phenomena
Fluid processes and material transport at Earth's surface and within its crust
Magma transport and emplacement
Molecular and multi-scale contaminant transport and fate
Physical and chemical transport on hillslopes, in rivers and in coastal zones
