The Department of Environmental Health Sciences (ENHS) works to solve numerous real-world environmental problems while working through a wide variety of research projects. Much of our research is multidisciplinary and involves collaboration with scientists in other fields.
A SmartState Center, CENR aims to investigate the effects and behaviors of manufactured and natural nanoparticles in the environmental and subsequent effects on environmental and human health. A second major strand of interest for CENR is the development of low hazard and low risk nanotechnologies for the benefit of human and environmental health.
The GIP Lab supports research that explores the increasingly important roles technology plays in monitoring, assessing, modeling and managing our environmental resources and associated health issues. The GIP Lab maintains spatial databases from various sources that are available to researchers, students, and resource managers.
The Chandler Lab conducts research in estuarine ecotoxicology, reproductive/endocrine disruption in invertebrates (principally crustaceans), effects of emerging contaminants such as nanomaterials and pharmaceuticals on benthos, sediment biogeochemistry and toxicant bioavailability, deep-sea foraminiferal culture linked to questions in paleoceanography and climate change, and genetic/molecular-scale responses of crustaceans to toxic chemicals.
The Decho Lab is designed to conduct microbial biofilm research. Our research centers on the role of the ‘extracellular matrix’ of bacterial ‘biofilms’ in marine, environmental and health-related processes. We are exploring a range of biological and chemical processes that occur within biofilms in order to understand how they function, and ultimately, how they may be manipulated or controlled.
The Norman Lab focuses on using state-of-the-art genomic and metagenomic approaches to understand how bacteria affect ecosystem and human health.
Dr. Geoff Scott's NOAA/CCEHBR focuses on research related to aquatic ecotoxicology.