Environmental / Water Resources Engineering Research

Research

Environmental and Water Resources Engineering

At PSU, we have core strength in environmental and water resources engineering. Our faculty have diverse interests in the field and conduct research in many areas described in the table below. In addition, faculty direct the following key labs:

Fluvial, Oceanic, and Water-level Sciences (FLOWS) Laboratory
Water Quality Research Group Laboratory
Pankow Group Laboratory
Hydrologic Modeling and Assimilation Lab

Student Spotlight: Bashar

As a child growing up in Baghdad, Iraq, CEE PhD candidate and environmental engineer Bashar Al Daomi saw the devastating effects of pollution in the Diyala River. Now, he has dedicated his life to devising new ways to treat wastewater at home and abroad.

Read video transcript

Environmental / Water Resources Engineering Research Faculty

Faculty contact information is listed in our Faculty & Staff Directory.

Faculty	Title	Research Areas
Peyman Abbaszadeh	Assistant Professor	Computational hydrology and satellite data assimilation, studying the surface and subsurface hydrologic processes and their interactions to improve the predictability of extreme hydroclimate events under climate change.
Samantha Hartzell	Assistant Professor	Ecohydrology, modeling the impact of vegetation on water, carbon, and energy fluxes between the land surface and atmosphere, sustainable agriculture in dryland ecosystems.
David Jay	Professor	Tidal analysis, fluid mechanics research on the impact of the Columbia River plume on oceanic dynamics as they relate to tides, fish migration up the Columbia, and impacts of dams and dikes on fish habitat in the lower Columbia River.
Gwynn Johnson	Associate Professor	Groundwater hydrology, subsurface contaminant transport and fate, and environmental chemistry.
Wentai Luo	Senior Research Associate	Fate and transport of organic contaminants in environment, chemistry of tobacco and tobacco smoke, measurement of volatile organic compounds emission from industrial activities, consumer products, and biogenic sources, flavor chemicals and their impacts.
James Pankow	Professor	Design of autonomous water samplers for surface waters, gas/particle (G/P) partitioning, air quality model development, chemistry of tobacco products.
Scott Wells	Professor	Surface water quality and hydrodynamic modeling, fluid particle dynamics.
Zhonglong Zhang	Research Professor	Watershed hydrology and non-point source modeling, riverine water quality and riparian vegetation modeling, lake and reservoir water quality modeling, multi-media contaminant transport and environmental risk modeling, environmental software development.

Environmental / Water Resources Engineering Research Facilities

Laboratory	Location	Primary Contact	Additional Contact	Description
Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulics Laboratory	EB 130	Annette Dietz	Samantha Hartzell	Fluid mechanics, hydraulics, and environmental flow work.
Water Quality Laboratory	EB 210	Gwynn Johnson		Wet-chemistry in the study of toxins in the environment.
Water Quality Research Group Laboratory	EB 220	Scott Wells		Water quality and hydrodynamic modeling of rivers, lakes, reservoirs and estuaries. Project sponsors include NSF, EPA, OR DEQ, Idaho DEQ, Washington Ecology. Development of open source software for modeling with funding from the Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiments Station.
Rainwater Lab	EB 225	Annette Dietz		Process rainwater captured on EB roof to be used in first floor restrooms.
Air Quality Modeling Laboratory	EB 230	Jim Pankow	Wentai Luo	Modeling laboratory.
Ecohydrology Lab	EB 275	Samantha Hartzell		Ecohydrology, plant carbon and water fluxes, green infrastructure measurement and modeling.
Fluvial, Oceanic, and Water-level Sciences (FLOWS) Laboratory	EB 280	David Jay		Fluid mechanical research on the impact of the Columbia River plume on oceanic dynamics as they relate to tides, fish migration up the Columbia, and impacts of dams and dikes on fish habitat in the lower Columbia River.
Containment Transport and Chemistry Laboratory	EB 285	Gwynn Johnson		Wet-chemistry in the study of toxins in the environment.
Advanced Instrumentation Laboratory for Environmental Chemical Analysis	EB 490	Jim Pankow	Wentai Luo	Aerosol, air quality, and chemistry testing.