Campus Climate Directory
This directory highlights faculty and some staff on the Cal Poly campus that are interested and/or working on climate and sustainability. Please use this directory as a resource to find potential mentors, collaborators, and more.
If you are a faculty member at Cal Poly and would like to be added to this list, please email hwillman@calpoly.edu.
Menu
Faculty
College of Architecture and Environmental Design
| Name | Department | Research Interests | Office | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Craig Baltimore | dcbaltimo@calpoly.edu | Architectural Engineering | Sustainable Practices with Natural Pozzolans as Partial Cement Replacement Concentrated Solar Energy Resilient Practices with Concrete Masonry | 21–108B |
| Jonathan Reich | jreich@calpoly.edu | Architecture | Education in sustainability & sustainability in architecture and urban design | 21-208 |
| Sandy Stannard | stannard@calpoly.edu | Architecture | Ecologically responsible and bio-inspired architectural design; architectural lighting; design/build | 21-213 |
| Adrienne Greve | agreve@calpoly.edu | City and Regional Planning | Climate change planning (GHG & adaptation), climate-smart infrastructure, urban hydrology (green infrastructure) | 21-116C |
| Dave Amos | daveamos@calpoly.edu | City and Regional Planning | Land use planning, urban design, active transportation, public planning education | 21-117C |
| Michael Boswell | mboswell@calpoly.edu | City and Regional Planning | Environmental and natural resource planning, sustainable development, climate action planning, planning theory, natural hazards policy. | 21-117B |
| Scott Kelting | skelting@calpoly.edu | Construction Management | The scholarship of teaching, educational facilities, multiple stakeholder decision-making, housing, health care, sustainability and education. | 186-A205 |
| Ellen Burke | eburke02@calpoly.edu | Landscape Architecture | Resilient/sustainable urbanism and landscape, urban ecology and restoration, urban wilds, and landscape systems, including food systems |
34-214 |
| Miran Day | miday@calpoly.edu | Landscape Architecture | Large scale landscape planning and design, landscape ecology, watershed study, and system and data visualization using GIS | 34-214 |
College of Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Sciences
| Name | Department | Research Interests | Office | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lynn Hamilton | lhamilto@calpoly.edu | Agribusiness | Environmental, Water, Agricultural and Regulatory Policy | 22-200 |
| Bryan Lohmar | btlohmar@calpoly.edu | Agribusiness | Agricultural trade and develop area, with a focus on China | 010-0210 |
| Michael McCullough | mpmccull@calpoly.edu | Agribusiness | Agricultural regulatory costs, economics of climate change adaptation, economics of beer, wine, and cannabis | 22-209 |
| Lucy McGowan | lumcgowa@calpoly.edu | Agribusiness | Consumer & producer perception of sustainable practices | 22-301 |
| Christiane Schroeter | cschroet@calpoly.edu | Agribusiness | Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Economics of Obesity, Nutrition Labeling & Health Claims | 22-302 |
| Marianne McGarry | mwolf@calpoly.edu | Wine and Viticulture and Agribusiness | Marketing research. Examine product positioning for food and beverage products. Consumer attitudes toward different food and wine production methods such as sustainability, organic, and fair trade. Examining the differences in the factors that impact purchase interest in food and beverages between generations | M74-A107 |
| Ann DeLay | adelay@calpoly.edu | Agricultural Education and Communication | Teacher education | 10-236 |
| James Bingaman | bingaman@calpoly.edu | Agricultural Education and Communication | Media & Mass Communication, Science & Environmental Communication, Sports Communication, Strategic Communication | 10-240 |
| Beth Reynolds | ejreynol@calpoly.edu | Animal Science | Grazing, solar grazing, fire prevention/WUI grazing | 10-110A |
| Marc Horney | mhorney@calpoly.edu | Animal Science | Rangeland ecology and conservation, carbon sequestration, land management practices, applications of geospatial technologies to monitoring ecosystem processes | 10-101 |
| Guy W. Bates | gwbates@calpoly.edu | BioResource and Agricultural Engineering Department | Water quality, resource conservation, systems modeling, and optimization | 08A-22 |
| Peter Livingston | paliving@calpoly.edu | BioResource and Agricultural Engineering Department | Agricultural and water resources engineering, natural resources planning | 08-102 |
| Sara Kuwahara | skuwahar@calpoly.edu | BioResource and Agricultural Engineering Department | BioResource Engineering Biosystems Engineering Controlled Environmental Agriculture Bioreactors Wastewater Reuse and Treatment Micro and Macro algae | 08A-44F |
| Marni Goldenberg | mgoldenb@calpoly.edu | Experience Industry Management | Land and environmental ethic related to hikers, Pacific Crest Trail, user outcomes from open spaces and parks, outdoor education adventure leadership | 11-234 |
| Jerusha Greenwood | jbgreenw@calpoly.edu | Experience Industry Management | Tourism Planning and Management Sustainable Tourism Agritourism and Wine Tourism | 11-257 |
| Keri Schwab | keschwab@calpoly.edu | Experience Industry Management | Recreation Motivation, Retention, and Benefits Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Technology and Learning | 11-256 |
| Stephanie Jung | stjung@calpoly.edu | Food Science and Nutrition | Valorization of food waste, Sustainability | 181-209 |
| Scott Steinmaus | ssteinma@calpoly.edu | Plant Sciences | My research interests are currently focused on native dune plant restoration at Oceano dunes to mitigate dust generated by the vehicle park and then looking at ecosystem impacts of fire retardants for conventional and alternative products. I have long been involved with supporting Integrated Pest Management of weeds which is now becoming the Sustainable Pest Management roadmap, the goal of which is to minimize the use of synthetic pesticides in favor of non-chemical alternatives but integrating chemical methods in a sustainable manner if necessary to minimize environmental, economic, and social impacts. | 11-230 |
| Shunping Ding | sding01@calpoly.edu | Plant Sciences and Wine and Viticulture | Fungicide resistance in grapevine pathogens, grapevine disease diagnosis and epidemiology, and testing sources of disease resistance in grapes. increase sustainability of wine grape production. | 11-233 |
| Charlotte Decock | cdecock@calpoly.edu | Plant Sciences | Soil health and fertility assessment; Soil conservation; Fertilizer management; Sustainable agriculture | 11-230 |
| Chris Dicus | cdicus@calpoly.edu | Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences | Wildland Fire; Fuels Management | 180-506 |
| Nick Babin | nbabin@calpoly.edu | Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences | Agroecology; Sustainable Food Systems; Natural Resources Policy and Planning; Watershed Management; Political Economy | 181-317 |
| Richard Cobb | rccobb@calpoly.edu | Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences | Underlying drivers, ecological impacts, and potential responses to insect and disease outbreak | 10-238 |
| Seeta Sistla | ssistla@calpoly.edu | Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences | Soil and Ecosystem Ecology; Terrestrial Carbon and Nutrient Cycling; Carbon and Nitrogen Cycling in Soils; Global Environmental Change | Unlisted |
| Yamina Pressler | ypressle@calpoly.edu | Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences | Soil Ecology; Soil Food Webs; Soil Organic Matter; Restoration Ecology | 181-313 |
| Nick Williams | nwilli37@calpoly.edu | Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences | Agricultural biodiversity and climate change adaptation | 181-315 |
| Priya Verma | pverma@calpoly.edu | Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences | Environmental Sociology; Governance for Sustainable Development; Corporate Environmental Management | 180-505 |
| Anastasia Telesetsky | ateleset@calpoly.edu | Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences | Environmental Law; International Environmental Law; Ocean Governance; Fisheries Law; Ecological Restoration; Climate Change Law; International Disaster Law | 181-311 |
| Chris Surfleet | csurflee@calpoly.edu | Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences | Hydrologic Change due to Land Management; Water Quality; Watershed Assessment and Monitoring; Hydrologic modeling; Hydrologic Effects due to Climate Change | 180-518 |
| Bwalya Malama | bmalama@calpoly.edu | Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences | Soil Biophysics; Groundwater Hydrogeology; Hydrogeophysics; Contaminant Transport | 180-516 |
| Jeremy James | jjames20@calpoly.edu | Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences | Restoration Ecology; Climate Change; Invasive Plant Ecology | 180-209 |
| Yiwen Chiu | yichiu@calpoly.edu | Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences | Life cycle analysis, system dynamics simulation, quantitative sustainability, application of GIS | 180-504 |
| Michael Costello | mcostell@calpoly.edu | Wine and Viticulture | Insects and mites on grapevines | 11-221 |
College of Engineering
| Name | Department | Research Interests | Office | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dianne DeTurris | ddeturri@calpoly.edu | Aerospace Engineering | Propulsion and Systems Thinking | 192-325 |
| Anurag Pande | apande@calpoly.edu | Civil Engineering | Safety of active travel mode (bicyclists/pedestrians), Vehicle-Miles Traveled (VMT) Modeling, Traffic Simulation, Intelligent Transportation Systems, Transportation Sustainability and Resilience, Statistical/Data Mining applications in Transportation Safety, Community-based Learning | 13-212 |
| Gregg Fiegel | gfiegel@calpoly.edu | Civil and Environmental Engineering | Geotechnical Engineering Foundation Design Field and Laboratory Testing Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering | 13-222 |
| Jonathan Ventura | jventu09@calpoly.edu | Computer Science and Software Engineering | Computer Vision, Machine Learning, Augmented and Virtual Reality, Remote Sensing | 14-235C |
| Dale Dolan | dsdolan@calpoly.edu | Electrical Engineering | Sustainable/Renewable energy generation Wind Energy Generation Power systems Electromagnetics Power electronic applications for distributed generation Grid connection impacts of renewable generation Sustainable energy project economics Sustainability of technologies Energy policy promoting widespread implementation of sustainable power generation | 20A-205 |
| David Braun | dbraun@calpoly.edu | Electrical Engineering | Education Sustainability Sustainability and Integrated Circuits Energy Harvesting from Exercise Machines Polymer and Solid-State Electronics (LEDs, FETs, Solar Cells) Electronics to Drive Displays Low Power Electronics Laboratory Automation | 20A-304 |
| Amro El Badawy | aelbadaw@calpoly.edu | Environmental Engineering | Environmental implications of nanotechnology, fate and transport of emerging contaminants, nanosensors for environmental monitoring, and membrane-based solutions for water desalination and reclamation | 13-209 |
| Misgana Muleta | mmuleta@calpoly.edu | Civil and Environmental Engineering | Flood mapping and control and floodplain analysis, Sustainable stormwater and groundwater management, low-impact developments and capture and use systems, coupled/integrated surface water-groundwater modeling, surface water hydrology, water resources systems analysis, optimization and uncertainty analysis | 13-266 |
| Stefan Talke | stalke@calpoly.edu | Civil and Environmental Engineering | Physics of estuaries and tidal rivers Sediment transport Tides, storm surge, and other long waves Sea-level rise and other Climate change effects Coastal Flood hazard Coastal Environmental Change: past, present, and future | 13-216 |
| Tryg Lundquist | tlundqui@calpoly.edu | Civil and Environmental Engineering | Wastewater treatment -- that is the recovery of water, nutrients and energy from the wastewaters of cities, farms, and industry * Pilot testing of vendor processes (ammonia recovery, membrane filters, dairy wastewater treatment, nanobubbles, ozone generators, algae control products, etc.) * Advanced pond systems and other nature-based technologies for low-cost, energy-efficient wastewater treatment, especially high-rate algae raceways. * Small and decentralized wastewater treatment facilities * Treatment of high-strength, novel wastewater from hydrothermal liquefaction of wastewater sludge * Membrane filtration of pond system effluents * Dairy farm waste management, for nitrogen control and methane production. * Treatment of drainage from farmland, for nitrogen, phosphorus, or selenium removal * Point-of-use, emergency water treatment devices | 13-211 |
| Yarrow Nelson | ynelson@calpoly.edu | Environmental Engineering | Bioremediation Biofuel production from wastewater and algae-based flue gas treatment Phytoremediation Pollution prevention Microbially-mediated contaminant transport and transformations Toxic metal pollutants | Emeritus |
| Andrew Kean | akean@calpoly.edu | Mechanical Engineering | Combustion and Pollution Emissions Energy Sustainability | 13-249 |
| Jacques Belanger | jjbelang@calpoly.edu | Mechanical Engineering | Renewable energy generation Solar energy power generation forecasting Clean energy generation including new nuclear reactor designs Smart and resilient electric grid with distributed power generation Micro-grid requirements and robustness | 13-261 |
| Patrick Lemieux | plemieux@calpoly.edu | Mechanical Engineering | Wind Power: Developed a research facility at Cal Poly for the study of utility-type horizontal axis wind turbine generators. The facility consists of a 3.0 kW HAWT with active yaw control, hydraulic brake system and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system. Areas of research include Prognostic Health Monitoring (PHM); rotor design and performance characterization; mechanics; and failure analysis. Rockets and Propulsion: Research focuses on aspects of hybrid rocket performance (solid fuel and liquid oxidizer). Developed a laboratory designed to test hybrid rocket motors. Developed novel techniques to improve the use of aerospike nozzles specifically for hybrid rocket motors. Studied the benefits and limitations of using 2-phase oxidizer flows for cooling of rocket parts. Internal Combustion Engines: Current research focuses on enhanced cycles, using Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES). Climate: Studies include modeling heat transfer effect on the El Nino phenomenon and the design of experiments to illustrate radiation energy absorption in a “participating media” atmosphere. | 192-126 |
College of Liberal Arts
| Name | Department | Research Interests | Office | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lauren Kolodziejski | lkolodzi@calpoly.edu | Communications | Environmental communication, the human-nature relationship, climate change advocacy, sustainability narratives, the green gap, eco-anxiety | 47-33B |
| Brie Adams | aadams45@calpoly.edu | Communications | New media, digital games, game-based learning, environmental communication | 47-22B |
| Jason Peters | jpeter65@calpoly.edu | English | Composition and Rhetoric Composition Theory, History & Pedagogy Translingualism Environmental Rhetoric | 47-35C |
| Yan Shan | yashan@calpoly.edu | Journalism | My previous publications primarily focused on the endorsements of social media influencers and their impact on audience perception and engagement. Recently, my research interests have expanded towards exploring the use of AI-generated content and its potential effects on trust and credibility. I am currently leading two research projects in this area. | 26-227 |
| Allen Settle | asettle@calpoly.edu | Political Science | American Constitutional law Civil Rights American Government Urban and State and Local Government Public Finance Public Personnel Administration | 47-11P |
| Andrew Fricker | africker@calpoly.edu | Social Science | GIS, remote sensing, spatial ecology, biogeography, deep learning, wildfire | 47-12P |
| Greg Bohr | gbohr@calpoly.edu | Social Science | Snow pack, Climatology, Global change, Extreme weather | 47-12C |
| Ryan Alaniz | ralaniz@calpoly.edu | Social Science | Disaster relief, disaster recovery, resilience, relocation, Latin America, community building, social change | 47-13F |
| Sara Lopus | slopus@calpoly.edu | Social Science | Food security, water security, and on-farm decision making amid climate uncertainty | 47-12N |
Bailey College of Science and Mathematics
| Name | Department | Research Interests | Office | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ben Ruttenberg | bruttenb@calpoly.edu | Biolgy | Applied marine ecology, fisheries, and the blue economy—sustainable aquaculture, offshore wind and renewable energy | 33-372 |
| Kurt Holland | kuhollan@calpoly.edu | School of Education and CESAME | Closing the "intention-action" gap as it applies to environmental issues, building ocean literacy, and climate communications leadership | 25-126 |
| Crow White | cwhite31@calpoly.edu | Biology | The overarching conceptual theme of my research is to understand causes and consequences of spatial and temporal population dynamics of coastal marine species, trophic processes among species in communities and ecosystems, and interactions between marine ecological communities and human users of the ocean, including fisheries, renewable energy and aquaculture industries, and conservationists. A common applied goal of my research is to identify how the implications of the above dynamics can be used to guide sustainable management of renewable natural marine resources and the conservation of marine ecosystems. Noteworthy focal research topics include: Seascape genetics for estimating patterns of dispersal and population connectivity Natural and controlled field and laboratory studies for quantifying variation in species demographics and community structure and function in response to human impacts (e.g., fishing) Designing and evaluating marine protected areas and catch shares for promoting sustainable fisheries Identifying optimal and practical ecosystem-based and marine spatial planning management strategies (of fisheries, aquaculture farms, wind farms, shipping lanes, etc.) for achieving conservation and socioeconomic objectives." | 33-378 |
| John Perrine | jperrine@calpoly.edu | Biology | Conservation biology Quantifying the basic ecology of endangered species Techniques for inventorying and monitoring wildlife populations Using a combination of empirical and theoretical approaches to assess how environmental change, such as climate change, will affect the distribution of mammal species Vertebrate species and how they use and partition resources in their environment, and how this affects their abundance and distribution Wildlife ecology, as relevant to the management of biodiversity | 33-275 |
| Lars Tomanek | ltomanek@calpoly.edu | Biology | Ecological physiology of marine organisms Biochemical temperature adaptation Global climate change | 181-418 |
| Emily Bockmon | ebockmon@calpoly.edu | Chemistry | Marine Chemistry Characterizing the seawater carbon dioxide chemistry of local environments Depth profiles of carbonate chemistry at the Cal Poly Pier Spatial and temporal understanding of the chemistry of Morro Bay Instrumentation development for carbonate chemistry characterization Using LabView to automate sample handling and analysis Creating better, easier and/or cheaper instrumentation Ocean acidification Impacts of changing seawater chemistry on organisms Interactions and relationships between carbon, oxygen, and nutrients | 181-413 |
| Vidya Schalk | vschalk@calpoly.edu | Chemistry | Sustainable Energy and Sustainable Materials, Climate Resilience, Biophilic Design, Sustainable Farming | 52-E39 |
| Matthew Zoerb | mzoerb@calpoly.edu | Chemistry | Atmospheric chemistry with a focus on aerosol particle composition and formation Organic aerosol: Sources and reactivity, gas-phase aerosol precursors Biological production, marine photosynthetic production Wildfires, combustion Anthropogenic, industrial sources Ambient aerosol measurement, instrument/method development Chemical composition, size distributions Field and laboratory sampling and measurement Mass spectrometry, spectroscopy, particle sizing techniques | 180-304A |
| Charles D. Camp | camp@calpoly.edu | Mathmatics | Climate dynamics, paleoclimatology, mathematical modeling, time series analysis techniques, nonlinear dynamical systems | 25-309 |
| Erin Pearse | epearse@calpoly.edu | Mathematics | Fractal geometry and connections to convex geometry and curvature. Fractal analysis, discrete harmonic analysis, energy measures. Resistance forms, infinite networks, and operator-theoretic approaches to their analysis; geometry and curvature of large networks, asymptotic properties of networks. Network-based methods of data analysis, nonlinear dimensionality reduction methods. | 25-341 |
| Peter Schwartz | pschwart@calpoly.edu | Physics | Solar Electric Cooking as an alternative to burning biomass Building local manufacturing capacity in nonindustrial communities. | 180-608 |
| Andrea Fabian Somoza-Norton | asomozan@calpoly.edu | Education, LEED Green Associate, Member of UC-CSU Environmental and Climate Change Literacy Projects Research Committee | Biomimetic Leadership Educational Leadership and Climate Change Educational Technology | 02-110 |
Orfalea College of Business
| Name | Department | Research Interests | Office | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colleen Duffy | cduffysm@calpoly.edu | Accounting and Law | 003-401 | |
| Jackie Doremus | jdoremus@calpoly.edu | Economics | Environment and Natural Resource Economics, Industrial Organization, Health | 03-323 |
| Steve Hamilton | shamilto@calpoly.edu | Economics | Environmental Economics | 003-328 |
| Ajay Kathuria | akathuri@calpoly.edu | Industrial Technology and Packaging | Biomaterials Bioplastics Bioderived high surface area porous compounds Green Chemistry | 003-328 |
| T.J. Weber | thweber@calpoly.edu | Marketing | How political values influence consumption, global warming studies how scientific literacy polarizes beliefs related to global warming | 003-423 |
Staff
| Name | Department | Office | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dianna Winslow | diwinslo@calpoly.edu | Center for Teaching Learning and Technology | 115-105 |
| Chad Worth | cworth@calpoly.edu | Facilities Management- Energy and Sustainability | |
| Edgar Palacios | empalaci@calpoly.edu | Facilities Management- Energy and Sustainability | |
| Maya Sandhofer | msandhof@calpoly.edu | Facilities Management- Energy and Sustainability | |
| Lalo Ocampo | evocampo@calpoly.edu | Facilities Management- Energy and Sustainability | |
| Erin Pearse | epearse@calpoly.edu | Initiative for Climate Leadership and Resilience | 25-341 |
| Hadley Willman | hwillman@calpoly.edu | Initiative for Climate Leadership and Resilience |
