Individuals
Professor Campo is currently researching modern mass pilgrimages. One aspect of this topic is the impacts millions of pilgrims and pilgrimage infrastructures have on the local Environments in Mecca, Guadalupe (Mexico City), and Sabarimala (South India). He has presented his findings at conferences in Germany, Singapore, and New York. His work on this subject will be included in a book about these pilgrimages in the contexts of modernity.
Michael Doherty's research group is investigating a new way of capturing CO2 from stack gases which converts gaseous CO2 at atmospheric pressure into cement. This is done through a solution-phase reactive precipitation process which transforms gaseous CO2 into calcium carbonate crystals.
Dr. Gurven's research focuses on the effect of ecological and social factors on the development of behavior, psychology, and physiology. His research group incorporates insights and perspectives from behavioral ecology, life history theory, biodemography, and human biology to provide a unique research Environment for explaining human diversity. In recent publications, Dr. Gurven has shown that native Bolivians have the healthiest hearts free of heart disease, and that intestinal infections might have protective effects on cardiovascular health. Dr. Gurven also recently helped develop and test the relationship between socioecological complexity and personality covariation across various societies.
As Co-director of the California Nanosystems Institute (CNSI) at UCSB, Dr. Hawker has overseen research that unlocks the valuable polymers held in plastic food packages so as to use them to benefit society. His lab is working to transform plastics into specialty chemicals commonly used by industrial and food manufacturers and is developing sustainable building blocks for commodity materials. Dr. Hawker's team hopes to recycle plastics into a material equally as valuable and useful.
Institute for Multi-scale Materials Studies
Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies
Mitsubishi Chemical Center for Advanced Materials
International Center for Materials Research
Materials Research Laboratory
Center for Nanomedicine
California NanoSystems Institute
Center for Nanotechnology in Society (NSF)
Dr. Keller's research focuses on the sustainable use of chemicals and materials in our modern society by understanding and quantifying their potential impacts and by seeking ways to minimize impacts while achieving the benefits. He is particularly interested in emerging materials such as nanoparticles and biochemicals, for which little information is available. He also does work at large scales to design better management strategies for common chemicals such as fertilizers and pesticides.
American Chemical Society
American Geophysical Union
Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors
Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
Dr. Larue conducts research on vegetarianism and veganism as well as all religious, anthropological, moral, medical and Environmental debates surrounding these lifestyles throughout history.
Dr. Meinhart's research group investigates fundamental fluid mechanics problems at the micro-scale and nano-scale, with special emphasis on transport issues in MEMS-based sensors for detection of specific biological molecules. His research allows the detection of highly sensitive and specific detection of trace chemicals through the combination of surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy with microfluidics.
Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies
AIM Photonics Center
Professor Sherman's research primarily centers on how people respond to and cope with threatening events. His research extends to understanding the psychological and social barriers to sustainability and how to overcome them.
Professor Van der Ven's research involves understanding and predicting equilibrium and non-equilibrium materials properties from first-principles. He combines electronic structure methods (density functional theory) with techniques from statistical mechanics to calculate thermodynamic and kinetic properties of new materials, including oxides and structures of assembled nanoparticles for battery and fuel cell components, metallic alloys, alloy surfaces for catalysis, and organic electronic materials.