research

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES and ENGINEERING

Environmental Map

Our society’s influence on the natural world’s resources, which has been spurred on by economic growth and increasing population, has never been more prominent or problematic than it is today.

To understand and address these challenges fully requires a combination of efforts: basic research in the natural and social sciences; the application of research to government, business, and law; and the education of future leaders and of society in general.

Harvard has long been a pioneer in environmental education and research. This tradition continues today with our faculty committed to teaching and actively engaged in research on engineered solutions to the problems in the atmospheric, terrestrial, and aquatic compartments of the earth's environment.

Research ranges from atmospheric sciences to microbiology, climate, oceanography, environmental chemistry, water and wastewater treatment plants, and international environmental policy.

Research Groups

Atmospheric Sciences
Hansel Group: Environmental Microbiology and Geochemistry
Rice Group: Geomechanics
Robinson Group: Oceanography

Areas of Focus

Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Modeling

  • experimental and modeling studies in the stratosphere and troposphere of chemical and aerosol processes
  • regional and global air pollution
  • exchange of carbon dioxide and reactive gases with the biosphere
  • effects of changes in atmospheric composition on climate

Researchers

Anderson, James G.
Jacob, Daniel J.
Martin, Scot T.
McElroy, Michael B.
Wofsy, Steven C.

Senior Research Fellows
Jennifer A. Logan
J. William Munger

Climate Dynamics and Physical Oceanography

  • study of climate changes due to a rich set of nonlinear, chaotic interactions of the oceans, atmosphere, and biosphere
  • El-Niño's dynamics and chaos
  • large-scale oceanic circulation: the thermohaline circulation, climate stability and variability, ocean and climate modeling
  • paleo-climate dynamics: glacial-interglacial oscillations and Heinrich events
  • combining oceanographic data and models through four dimensional variational data assimilation using the adjoint method

Researchers

Schrag, Daniel P.
Tziperman, Eli

Environmental Chemistry

  • understanding and quantifying the chemistry of surfaces in environmental chemical systems
  • phase transitions of atmospheric particles
  • dissolution and precipitation of minerals in aquatic environments
  • chemical oxidation reactions and hydrophobic-to-hydrophilic aging of atmospheric organic aerosol particles
  • atmospheric nanoparticles
  • mineral surface photoelectrochemistry to reduce inorganic carbon and form the prebiotic soup

Researchers

Hansel, Colleen
Martin, Scot T.

Environmental Microbiology

  • role of microorganisms both in causing environmental deterioration and in processes in which ecological degradation is controlled
  • investigation of the microbial ecology of both natural and polluted environments
  • the assessment of the dominant microflora and its function in the maintenance of equilibrium in both natural and artificial environments

Researchers

Hansel, Colleen
Mitchell, Ralph


Environmental Systems, Resources Management, and Planning

  • consequences of population on natural resources development, conflict resolution in international river basins, and improved methods for managing natural resources and the environment
  • the development of indices of environmental quality and sustainable development
  • the relationship between transportation, land use, and environment in Indian and Chinese cities

Researchers


Geomechanics

  • problem of stressing, deformation, fluid permeation, fracture and flow as they arise in the earth sciences and in civil and environmental engineering
  • lithospheric stressing
  • the mechanics and physics of earthquakes
  • hydrologic processes
  • granular flows
  • pore-fluid interactions in the deformation and failure of earth materials

Researchers

Rice, James R.


Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics

  • understanding and predicting atmosphere turbulence
  • the origin of cyclones and the vacillation of jet streams
  • improving weather forecasting by developing statistically optimal forecast initialization methods while climate prediction is being improved by applying stochastic dynamics theory to make better statistical predictions
  • determining the sensitivity of the atmospheric system to natural and antropogenic disturbances

Researchers

Farrell, Brian F.
Kuang, Zhiming


Risk Analysis and Public Health

  • application of systems analysis techniques to such environmental problems as water-resource and water-quality management, hazardous waste processing and disposal, and air quality control
  • how techniques can provide decision makers with a wider range of optimal or nearly optimal alternatives from which to choose
  • how the health consequences of tropical disease, such as malaria and schistosomiasis, can be mathematically incorporated into water-resource planning models

Researchers

Hansel, Colleen