The Division of Science, Mathematics, and Information Science and Technology provides students with many opportunities to participate in research. The listing below shows currently active groups. While the listing is by department, it should be emphasized that much of the research being done in the division is interdisciplinary. Any student who is interested in doing research in one of these areas should contact the lead professor.
Durham Brooks Lab
Dr. Durham Brooks studies how nature (genetic makeup) and nurture (environment) interact to affect plant function. The lab has developed inexpensive, high-resolution, high-throughput imaging systems, NMR methods, and microscopy techniques to track plant responses to reorientation, cold stress and bacterial infection.
Dr. Laungani's interests are extremely varied but center around plant ecology, particularly how plants change the cycling of nutrients in the
ecosystem. As part of this research, he has examined questions concerning plant competition for soil resources (such as nitrogen), plant-soil microbe relationships, and plant-soil feedbacks on plant performance. I have also conducted research into bioenergy and the most sustainable tree species to use for renewable biofuel production
Andrea Holmes, Ph.D.
Dr. Holmes is developing new micro-sized and nano-sized sensors for detection of small molecules, such as abused narcotics, environmental contaminants, warfare agents, explosives and disease related markers.
Video Overview: Research to Reality
Environmental and Earth Science
Russell Souchek, Ph.D. - Chair, Environmental and Earth Sciences
Professor Souchek works on problems related to particulate air quality, groundwater pollution (particularly nitrates), alternative energy using photovoltaic panels, animal behavior (particularly black-tailed prairie dogs, fish and hermit crabs), invertebrate and aquatic ecology.
Computational Physics Lab
Led by Professor Chris Wentworth, this lab uses the tools of statistical physics and computational science to investigate problems in condensed matter physics and biology. Recent work includes developing computer simulations of solid state diffusion, computer simulations of biofilm growth, and image processing codes to help with plant genome research.