University of Maryland, College Park
ER-16: Faculty Engaged in Sustainability Research

1) Adjunct Professor César Izaurralde of the Department of Geographical Sciences and Ph.D. candidate Ritvik Sahajpal published a groundbreaking study, titled “Sustainable bioenergy production from marginal lands in the US Midwest,” in a recent issue of Nature, that outlines how marginal lands - those deemed unsuitable for food crops - can be used to generate alternative energy fuels by the growth of grasses and non-woody plants (“biomass”) that thrive naturally. 2) Dr. Nathan Hultman—Director of the Environmental Policy Program, Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy and member of the Joint Global Change Research Institute—and his co-authors were awarded the Best Comparative International Paper Award for 2011 from the Association for Public Policy and Management (APPAM) Conference. Their paper, “Factors in Low-Carbon Energy Transformations: Comparing Nuclear and Bioenergy in Brazil, Sweden, and the United States” found that public policies and regulations were powerful motivators to accelerate development and adoption of new clean energy technologies. 3) Dr. Paul Leisnham, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Technology, is serving as the lead for a University of Maryland research team that was recently awarded a competitive grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for an innovative proposal designed to help local communities tackle stormwater and reduce pollution to the Chesapeake Bay. The research team includes research faculty and graduate students from the School of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Maryland Extension, the School of Public Health, and the A. James Clark School of Engineering. 4) Dr. George Hurtt, Director of Research and Professor in the Department of Geographical Sciences, was named Science Team Leader for NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System (CMS). The CMS Science Team is responsible for providing broad research community involvement in the development and evaluation of NASA CMS products; coordinating their NASA-funded CMS activities to ensure maximum returns for science, management, and policy; and providing scientific, technical, and policy-relevant inputs to help set priorities and directions for future NASA CMS activities.