Overview
Type: Vanderbilt Reinvestment Award (VRA)
Vanderbilt’s researchers have provided national and international leadership in environmental sustainability and development/assessment of infrastructure materials. The Materials Durability and Environmental Research Facilities Hub will provide core facilities in support of research on the performance and durability of natural and engineered materials and systems exposed to a wide range of environmental conditions. Example applications include development of advanced materials for infrastructure, new techniques for leaching environmental assessment, understanding the transport, fate and biological effects of nutrients and contaminants in natural and built environments, and innovations in water desalination and photovoltaic films.
Collectively, these research programs have been the basis for national and international policies and practices, received more than $110 million in current external research funding, and published more than 200 papers over the past five years. The Materials Hub will provide abilities for trace contaminant measurements, thermodynamics, micromechanical and tribological characterization. The hub will bridge the spatial scales evaluated by the Vanderbilt Institute for Nanoscale Sciences and Engineering (VINSE) and Laboratory for Systems Integrity and Reliability (LASIR), and provide core research facilities for Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Chemistry, as well as for Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP) and the Leaching Environmental Assessment Framework (LEAF) as well as unique analytical services for the whole University. The same facilities also support the educational missions of several programs.
Faculty Participants
Lead Faculty in bold
School of Engineering
- Florence Sanchez, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- David Kosson, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- George Hornberger, University Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth and Environmental Sciences
- Kane Jennings, Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Shihong Lin, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Scott Guelcher, Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Sankaran Mahadevan, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Arts & Science
- Steve Goodbred, Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences
- John McLean, Professor of Chemistry
- John Ayers, Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences
School of Medicine (Clinical)
- Jeffry Nyman, Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation