Sustainability and resilience of natural resources depends on the integration
of laboratory and field experimentation, data analytics, and modeling in novel
ways. In Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering we develop
sustainable solutions to environmental problems at local and global levels. We
create and evaluate new soil and water conservation systems, analyze drivers
of ecosystem processes that reduce pollution, quantify the effects of climate
and land use change, and advance waste management and utilization for
renewable energy generation. Research opportunities include air quality, water
resources engineering, in-situ and remote sensing systems, animal environments
and welfare, and sustainable food production systems.
Faculty
Laura Bowling
Courtesy - Professor of Agronomy
Research Areas
Hydrology and water resources engineering.
Using observations to support open-access, process-based model
development; quantifying water cycle alteration through human
intervention across multiple scales, climate regimes and
ecosystems.
https://www.agry.purdue.edu/hydrology
Teresa Carvajal
Agricultural & Biological Engineering
Research Areas
Surface Materials Science - Exploring and
exploiting physical and chemical factors governing particulate
interactions to relationships between surface-structure and
process-performance of food and pharmaceutical powders and
composites
Keith Cherkauer
Professor, Agricultural & Biological Engineering
Research Areas
Hydrology and Water Resources Engineering.
ntegration of field based observations, remote sensing products
and, hydrology and crop models into a digital ecosystem that can
be used to enhance sustainability in the face of environmental
change.
http://www.agry.purdue.edu/hydrology
Bernard Engel
Glenn W. Sample Dean of Agriculture; Professor, Agricultural
& Biological Engineering
Research Areas
Information Systems Soil and Water Resource
Engineering.
Hydrologic/water quality model development and application at
field to watershed scales, groundwater modeling, environmental
decision support systems, GIS, simulation.
https://ag.purdue.edu
Dennis Flanagan
Professor Emeritus, National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory
Research Areas
Soil Erosion Mechanics, Prediction, and Control.
Soil detachment, sediment transport, and sediment deposition
processes. Process-based soil erosion modeling (WEPP model).
Soil amendments for erosion control. Water quality monitoring
and modeling. (USDA-ARS)
http://topsoil.nserl.purdue.edu/~flanagan
Jane Frankenberger
Professor, Agricultural & Biological Engineering
Research Areas
Watershed management in agricultural watersheds.
Conservation drainage and climate change adaptation for water
quality and resilient agricultural landscapes, Conservation
practice effectiveness; watershed modeling for improved
community decision-making.
http://engineering.purdue.edu/~frankenb
Margaret Gitau
Professor, Agricultural & Biological Engineering
Research Areas
Water Resources and Ecohydrologic Engineering:
integrated (hydrologic, water quality, statistical) modeling;
climate, land use/land management impacts; data-driven
approaches for water resources decision making and management.
http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~mgitau/
Jiqin (JQ) Ni
Professor, Agricultural & Biological Engineering
Research Areas
Waste Management, Treatment, and Utilization:
Anaerobic digestion of agricultural and industrial wastes;
animal environment and welfare; air pollution monitoring and
modeling; and data acquisition software and sensor development.
Caitlin Proctor
Assistant Professor, Agricultural & Biological Engineering,
Ecological & Environmental Engineering
Research Areas
Microbial ecology of aquatic systems. Improving
systems to enhance functionality and protect public health
(e.g., in drinking water) by understanding the dynamic
ecosystems happening on small scales.
Dharmendra Saraswat
Professor, Agricultural & Biological Engineering
Research Areas
Precision/Digital Agriculture Remote sensing
and Internet of Things (IoT) for managing plants/animals,
development of spatio-temporal/machine learning models for site
specific plant management, and decision support tools for
natural resources management.
https://dad.saraswat.rcac.purdue.edu/
Halis Simsek
Assistant Professor, Agricultural & Biological Engineering
Research Areas
Shweta Singh
Associate Professor, Agricultural & Biological Engineering
and Ecological & Environmental Engineering
Research Areas
Sustainable Systems Modeling: Systems Modeling,
Sustainability in Industrial-Natural Coupled Systems (SINCS),
Urban Sustainability, Complex Systems Models, Integrated
Nitrogen Modeling, Biodiversity Loss, and Chemical Pollutants.
Mark Williams
Adjunct - National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory
Research Areas
Subsurface hydrology, water quality, tile drainage, preferential
flow, water isotopes, field and watershed monitoring.
