Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 55.91
Liaison Allie McAllister
Submission Date Nov. 25, 2014
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

Villanova University
AC-9: Academic Research

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 7.38 / 12.00
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Number of the institution’s faculty and/or staff engaged in sustainability research:
43

Total number of the institution’s faculty and/or staff engaged in research:
93

Number of academic departments (or the equivalent) that include at least one faculty or staff member that conducts sustainability research:
11

The total number of academic departments (or the equivalent) that conduct research:
64

A copy of the sustainability research inventory that includes the names and department affiliations of faculty and staff engaged in sustainability research:
Names and department affiliations of faculty and staff engaged in sustainability research:

Robert Traver, Director VACSE and Dept of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Aaron Wemhoff, Dept of Mechanical Engineering
Andrea Welker, Dept of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Bridget Wadzuk, Dept of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Gerard Jones, Sr. Associate Dean Grad. Studies and Research, Dept of Mechanical Engineering
Justinus Satrio, Dept of Chemical Engineering
Pritpal Singh, Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Amy Fleischer; Dept of Mechanical Engineering
Jens Karlsson, Dept of Mechanical Engineering
Metin Duran, Dept of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Randy Weinstein, Dept of Chemical Engineering
Leslie Myers McCarthy; Civil and Environmental Engineering
Deri Park; Civil and Environmental Engineering
Michael Smith Department of Engineering
Adam Langley, Dept of Biology
John Olson, Dept of Biology
R. Kelman Wieder, Dept of Biology
Michael Russell, Dept of Biology
Robert Curry, Dept of Biology
Ronald Balsamo, Dept of Biology
Samantha Chapman, Dept of Biology
Vikram Iyengar, Dept of Biology
Alfonso Ortega, Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs
Amanda Grannas, Dept of Chemistry
Jared Paul, Dept of Chemistry
Temer Ahmadi, Dept of Physical Chemistry
Chaone Mallory, Dept of Philosophy
Chara Armon, Core Humanities
John Kozup, Dept of Marketing and Business Law, School of Business
Tina Yang, Dept of Finance, School of Business
Jonathan Doh, Center for Global Leadership, Management, School of Business
Ronald Hill, Dept of Marketing and Business Law, School of Business
Elizabeth Keech, College of Nursing
Marsha Costello, College of Nursing
Ruth McDermott-Levy, College of Nursing
Francis Galgano, Dept of Geography and the Environment
Keith Henderson, Dept of Geography and the Environment
Lisa Rodrigues, Dept of Geography and the Environment
Nathaniel Weston, Dept of Geography and the Environment
Steve Goldsmith, Dept of Geography and the Environment
Joseph Dellapenna, Environmental Law, Law School
Todd Aagaard, Environmental Law, Law School
Paul Rosier, Dept of History


A brief description of the methodology the institution followed to complete the research inventory:

Emails were sent out to department leaders to identify those who had done sustainable research.


A brief description of notable accomplishments during the previous three years by faculty and/or staff engaged in sustainability research:

Samantha Chapman (Biology) conducts research at the intersection of ecosystem processes (including biotic influences on carbon and nutrient cycling) and sustainable practices. Her research is directed to inform ecosystem management and stakeholders. Ongoing projects in these areas include (1) mangrove community dynamics, plant-soil feedbacks, and shifting ranges; (2) carbon storage in Christmas tree farms; (3) interactions of native and non-native plant diversity with nitrogen availability associated with non-native plant invasion; and (4) microbial degradation of oil. http://www99.homepage.villanova.edu/samantha.chapman/chapman_ecosystem_ecology_lab/Home.html
Justinus Satrio (Chemical Engineering) just established the Biomass Resources & Conversion Technologies (BRCT) center, an education, research and development program in the College of Engineering at Villanova. Research focuses on utilizing biorenewable materials to produce energy, liquid fuels and chemical products, that typically are still primarily derived from non-renewable carbon resources. These include (1) improvement of biomass qualities and biorefinery feedstocks; (2) energy densification of biomass by liquefaction; (3) utilization of liquefied biomass (BCO); (4) assessments of sustainability and techno-economics of biomass utilization systems. http://www3.villanova.edu/biomass/

Robert Traver (Civil and Environmental Engineering) serves as Director of both the Center for the Advancement of Sustainability in Engineering, and the Villanova Urban Stormwater Partnership. He conducts research on topics that include modeling of stream hydraulics, urban hydrology, water quality, and sustainable stormwater management.  He initiated the Stormwater Best Management Practice Demonstration and Research Park on the Villanova Campus. 

Kelman Wieder and Melanie Vile (Biology) conduct research in biogeochemistry and ecosystem ecology. Current research focuses on carbon cycling in boreal Sphagnum-dominated peatlands, especially with respect to ongoing climate change. As the earth's climate changes, in part driven by anthropogenic factors, it is unknown whether peatlands globally will continue to represent a net sink for atmospheric CO2, or whether they will shift and begin releasing stored C back to the atmosphere. Using a combination of field and laboratory, descriptive and experimental, studies, their research group strives to quantify pools of carbon in peat, carbon fluxes within peat and between peat and the atmosphere, and the biotic and abiotic controls on those fluxes. http://www13.homepage.villanova.edu/kelman.wieder/index.html

Professor Jonathan Doh from the Villanova School of Business has been elected at Professional Development Chair (2013), Program Chair (2014), Division Chair-elect (2015), and Division Chair (2016) for the Academy of Management Organization and Natural Environment (ONE) Division.

Paul Rosier in the History Department at Villanova recently published an article on the American Indians' attitudes to environmental crisis and how it led to considerations for alternative energy in the 1970s.

Professor Jared Paul in the Department of Chemistry collaborated with a laboratory at University of Alabama to create a paper on water oxidization and prospects for using water as a fuel source. This paper was featured on the cover of the Inorganic Chemistry journal in August 2013.


The website URL where information about sustainability research is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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