Sustainability Studies Research

KATE AUBRECHT

Aubrecht’s scholarship focuses on science education and science education research including: sustainability education for chemistry students, relevant chemistry education for sustainability students, STEM knowledge integration, project-based learning in laboratory courses, information literacy, and systems thinking. Aubrecht is interested in student development and use of systems dynamics models to further their system thinking competencies, as well as in fostering and assessing systems thinking in foundational chemistry courses. She is looking to mentor undergraduate research students. 

ADAM CHARBONEAU

Adam Charboneau is an urban and environmental historian whose research interests lie at the intersections of public policy and planning, sustainability, and uneven development. His scholarship focuses on issues of social, economic, and environmental justice, gentrification, grassroots activism, and the production of space. Dr. Charboneau’s published work has examined appropriations of abandonment, the marketing and media representation of local reclamation campaigns, and the social and environmental consequences of neoliberal governance. He is currently investigating redevelopment and sustainability in Long Island, New York, using area case studies as a means of experiential learning for undergraduates.

MARY COLLINS

• From a sociological perspective, I am interested in the interdependence of social and ecological systems, particularly related to issues of equity and justice in the context of human health. Research topics include: theorizing the environment-society interface, environmental disproportionality at various spatial scales, environmental health inquality, environmental justice, technological environmental risk perception, collaborative dispute resolution in environmental disaster recovery and quantitative modeling methods.  The vast majority of my work relies on large data computational social science approaches. 

DONOVAN FINN

Dr. Finn is an urban planner whose research focuses on understanding the effects of climate change and disasters on urban places and developing tools to help those places develop in more resilient ways. Some of his current research projects include a study of climate risk communication in coastal communities in New York City, using scenario planning as a mechanism to plan for climate change adaptation planning in the Gulf Coast region, and studying the effects of disasters on community planning strategies in the northeastern US. He works regularly with graduate and undergraduate students on these and other research topics related to urban planning, public policy, and climate change adaptation.

SARA HAMIDEH

In Hamideh’s Housing and Disasters Lab we study the impacts of disasters on different types of housing with an equity lens looking at affordable housing, vacation homes, multifamily, mobile homes, and duplexes, as well as public housing. We also try to understand and compare housing recovery trajectories for different types of households based on their vulnerabilities and resilience capacities.

In addition to resilience research and modeling, our group develops and leads community engagement efforts that apply various science-based tools and knowledge from resilience research. For example in the Center for Risk-Based Community Resilience Planning (CoE)  funded by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) we are partnering with three communities for development of resilience plans using the CoE IN-CORE (Interdependent Networked Community Resilience Modeling Environment) and NIST Community Resilience Planning Guide For Buildings And Infrastructure Systems: A Playbook. Our goal is ensuring usability and usefulness of IN-CORE as a tool that informs resilience planning and decision making by real communities.

GIL JANG

Dr. Sung-Gheel Jang is the director of the Geospatial Center in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. He has expertise in spatial data analytics of open data and crowdsourced data; environmental data curation; and mapping urban coastal systems. Dr. Jang has worked on spatial data analytics to examine distributional aspects of public services by using both government big data and developed a spatio-temporal index for marine resource managers to explore the dynamics of both societal systems and coupled human-environment systems. In collaboration with CEWIT, he is currently working on the development of the Clean Energy Equity Index for New York State and Sub-Saharan Africa through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) using GIS.

As a service center, the Geospatial Center provides GIS research and consulting services to the research communities at Stony Brook University and conservation organizations on Long Island, such as the Peconic Estuary Partnership (PEP). The center’s undergraduate students developed a web-based dashboard to track the status of action and performance measures in the PEP 2020 Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan. A graduate student is currently developing interactive web mapping applications for the PEP long-term eelgrass monitoring program so that resource managers, stakeholders, and concerned citizens will be able to understand the eelgrass habitat in the Peconic Estuary better and make informed decisions about habitat restoration.

SHARON POCHRON

Led by Sharon Pochron, the Sustainability Studies Earthworm Ecotoxicology Lab (aka The Worm Lab) studies the impact of common contaminants on invertebrates. The lab has two goals: to advance environmental science, and to provide students with the opportunity to conduct hands-on research. The Worm Lab produces roughly two peer-reviewed papers per year and has included more than 100 undergraduate students on the author line. Graduate students with experience in microbiology, ecotoxicology, and improving STEM education will be considered. Published topics and working topics include:

• The impact of Roundup on cockroaches
• The impact of Roundup on earthworms
• The impact of crumb rubber from athletic fields on planaria
• The impact of crumb rubber from athletic fields on earthworms
• The impact of genetic modification on water use in plants
• The impact of PVA on planarians and earthworms

TARA RIDER

Tara Rider is an environmental and maritime historian.  Using her interdisciplinary background in history and marine sciences, her research focuses on the interactions between the natural world and society.  She is particularly interested in how the linkage of gender and race with landscape raises questions of power, culture, and identity.  Currently she is partnering with the Peconic Estuary Partnership and New York SeaGrant on several projects related to the implementation of natural shorelines on the east end of Long Island.

DAVID TAYLOR

David Taylor is an Associate Professor, and Faculty Director of the Environmental Humanities track in the Sustainability Studies major. His writing crosses disciplinary boundaries and genres—poetry, creative nonfiction, scholarship, and science writing; however, at the core of his work always is a concern for environmental sustainability and community. David is the author and editor of eight books.