Mentor Profiles

Diversity in research interests are needed to address the "Assessment and Sustainable Management of Ecosystem Services at the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water".

The mentors listed below participate in EcoREU. Applicants can include preferred mentor or research topics in their statement of interest. We'll try our best to accommodate student preferences.

Faculty Mentor Research Topic
Michelle Evans-White Studies freshwater ecosystem function and service responses to watershed agricultural, urban, and energy development.
Brett DeGregorio Wildlife behavior, inter-species interactions and wildlife community responses to human impacts.
Julian Fairey Studies the relationships between source water quality and drinking water treatment disinfection byproducts, with a particular interest in developing new technologies to reduce human health risks.
Kevin Befus Studies global patterns in climate-groundwater interactions and groundwater quality and quantity
   
Halvor Halvorson Studies ecosystem structure and function, as well as ecosystem provisioning services, in the Arkansas River Valley
Jamie Hestekin Studies algae production into biodiesel and butanol, as well as charged separations of ions for industrial or commercial uses.
Qiuqiong Huang Studies natural resource economics and development issues including education, mirgration, and labor market outcomes.
Kent Kovacs Studies economics as it relates to natural resources, agriculture, and the environment.
Daniel Magoulick Studies population and community dynamics of freshwater fish and invertebrates, especially in the context of ecosystem conservation.
Marty Matlock Studies ecosystem sustainability and resiliency with a focus on life cycle assessment of agricultural, urban, and supply chain systems, ecological services design and restoration, and watershed restoration and management.
Kusum Naithani Studies land and ecosystem ecology, spatiotemporal modeling, and land-atmosphere interactions.
Caleb Roberts Studies wildlife conservation and conservation outcomes at the landscape level.
Erik Pollock Studies environmental geochemical analysis.
Adriana Potra Studies quantifying heavy metal loads of streams draining mining districts in NW Arkansas and NE Oklahoma
Benjamin Runkle Studies linkages between agricultural practices and global carbon and water budgets.
Erica Westerman Studies environmental effects on the abundance, development, and behavior of pollinators. Solar energy impacts on pollinators.
JD Willson Studies effects of agriculture and energy development on amphibian and reptile population and community dynamics. Solar energy deveolpment impacts on terrestrial ecosystems
Wen Zhang Studies environmental engineering, especially in drinking water and wastewater treatment systems.
   
   

 

The EcoREU program has faculty advisors from various departments on campus including Biological Sciences (BISC), Geosciences (GEOS),  Biological and Agricultural Engineering (BAEG), Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences (CSES), Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness (AGAB), Horticulture (HORT), and Chemical Engineering (CHEG) have become part of our REU program family over the last 10 years.  This diversity of expertise is needed to address environmental sustainability and ecosystem management.