NRES-Affiliated Faculty

Faculty affiliated with the Natural Resources and Environmental Science program represent a wide range of disciplines at Purdue. The following faculty members teach in the NRES program, provide research opportunities and mentor NRES students.

Agricultural & Biological Engineering

Keith Cherkauer Associate Professor Agricultural & Biological Engineering

Phone: (765) 496-7982

Email: cherkaue@purdue.edu

Area of expertise: Environmental and Natural Resources

Albert Heber Professor of Agricultural & Biological Engineering

Phone: (765) 494-1214

Email: heber@purdue.edu

Sara McMillan Associate Professor of Agricultural & Biological Engineering

Phone: (765) 496-0211

Email: mcmill@purdue.edu

Research interests: Water quality and nutrient biogeochemistry in rivers, wetlands, and floodplains; ecological success of stream and wetland restoration; ecosystem services provided by urban green infrastructure practices; water quality impacts of conservation practices in agricultural systems.

Shweta Singh Assistant Professor of Agricultural & Biological Engineering

Phone: (765) 494-1162

Email: singh294@purdue.edu

Agricultural Economics

Michael Delgado Associate Professor of Agricultural Economics

Phone: (765) 494-4211

Email: Mdelgado2@purdue.edu

Otto Doering Professor of Agricultural Economics

Phone: (765) 494-4226

Email: doering@purdue.edu

Areas of expertise: Public policy with respect to agriculture, resources and the environment
Research interests: Issues related to water quality, excess nutrients, climate change, soil erosion and conservation programs.

Thomas Hertel Distinguished Professor

Phone: (765) 494-4199

Email: hertel@purdue.edu

Area of expertise: Economics and global agriculture, environment and trade

Research interests: Quantitative and policy-oriented research on issues of global food security, environmental issues, including climate change impacts and mitigation, and international trade.

Juan Sesmero Associate Professor of Agricultural Economics

Phone: (765) 494-7545

Email: jsesmero@purdue.edu

Gerald Shively Professor of Agricultural Economics

Phone: (765) 494-4218

Email: shivelyg@purdue.edu

Area of expertise: Agricultural and applied economics

Research interests: Connections and interactions between poverty and environmental degradation to make global food production more environmentally sustainable.

Agricultural Sciences Education and Communication

Natalie Carroll Professor of Agricultural Sciences Education and Communication

Phone: (765) 494-8439

Email: ncarroll@purdue.edu

Area of expertise: Natural resources curriculum development for youth audiences

Research interest: Extension and engagement with a focus on informal youth education in natural resources and the environment.

Linda Pfeiffer Assistant Professor of Agricultural Sciences Education and Communication

Phone: (765) 496-1890

Email: lpfeiff@purdue.edu

Research interests: Systemic factors that affect the construction and effective translation of messages to engage the public in scientific issues.

Agronomy

Jason Ackerson Assistant Professor of Agronomy

Phone: (765) 494-5314

Email: jackers@purdue.edu

Assistant Professor of Agronomy

Dr. Laura Bowling NRES Co-Director & Professor of Agronomy

Phone: (765) 494-8051

Email: bowling@purdue.edu

NRES Co-Director & Professor of Agronomy

Sylvie Brouder Professor of Agronomy

Phone: (765) 496-1489

Email: sbrouder@purdue.edu

Professor of Agronomy

Beth Hall Indiana State Climatologist

Phone: (765) 494-8060

Email: hall556@purdue.edu

Indiana State Climatologist

Cliff Johnston Professor of Agronomy

Phone: (765) 496-1716

Email: clays@purdue.edu

Professor of Agronomy

Eileen Kladivko Professor of Agronomy

Phone: (765) 494-6372

Email: kladivko@purdue.edu

Professor of Agronomy

Linda Lee Assoc Dept Head/Professor of Agronomy

Phone: (765) 494-8612

Email: lslee@purdue.edu

Assoc Dept Head/Professor of Agronomy

Michael Mashtare Assistant Professor in Agronomy and Environmental and Ecological Engineering

Phone: (765) 494-1840

Email: mmashtare@purdue.edu

Assistant Professor in Agronomy and Environmental and Ecological Engineering

Gary C Steinhardt Professor of Agronomy

Phone: (765) 494-8063

Email: gsteinha@purdue.edu

Area of expertise: Soils and Soil Management

Research interests: Long term tillage plots; strip preparation plots; crop residue studies

Jeffrey Volenec Professor of Agronomy

Phone: (765) 494-8071

Email: jvolenec@purdue.edu

Professor of Agronomy

Research interests: Aims to understand how crop plants adapt to stress and to develop strategies that enhance plant productivity and resilience. His work includes perennial species that must endure the heat and drought of summer, but also must survive stresses associated with winter and still thrive. He teaches AGRY 52500 "Crop Physiology and Ecology" that focuses on processes influencing crop growth and development, mechanisms underlying stress tolerance, and how management and genetics can be used to improve adaptation and performance.

Tony J Vyn Henry A. Wallace Chair in Crop Sciences Professor of Agronomy

Phone: (765) 496-3757

Email: tvyn@purdue.edu

Area of expertise: Cropping Systems, Tillage

Research interests: Cropping systems research to improve crop productivity and environmental sustainability in the context of changing genetics, input technologies and climate. Special interest in tillage and rotation systems, nutrient use efficiencies using 4R strategies, plant phenotyping for stress tolerance, nitrogen recovery efficiency, and greenhouse gas mitigation in crop agriculture.

Animal Sciences

Paul Ebner Associate Professor of Animal Sciences

Phone: (765) 494-4820

Email: pebner@purdue.edu

Area of expertise: Microbiology

Research interests: Phage therapy and biology; safe and effective antibacterial therapies for use in food animals; characterization of the roles different management practices play in foodborne disease transmission.

Biochemistry

Jennifer Wisecaver Assistant Professor of Biochemistry

Phone: (765) 494-4157

Email: jwisecav@purdue.edu

Botany and Plant Pathology

Anjali Iyer-Pascuzzi Assistant Professor of Botany and Plant Pathology

Phone: (765) 494-1443

Email: asi2@purdue.edu

Area of expertise: Plant development and disease resistance

Research interests: Mechanisms underlying disease resistance in plant roots to soil borne pathogens.

Scott McAdam Assistant Professor of Botany and Plant Pathology

Phone: (765) 494-3650

Email: smcadam@purdue.edu https://ag.purdue.edu/btny/mcadam/

Research interests: Stomatal evolution; evolution of the hormone abscisic acid; evolution of xylem

My lab investigates the evolution of plant water use and drought tolerance. Specifically we are interested in understanding the key innovations that were responsible for plants colonizing dry environments over the past 450 million years.

Chris Oakley Assistant Professor of Botany and Plant Pathology

Phone: (765) 494-9644

Email: oakleyc@purdue.edu

Research interests: Ecological and evolutionary genetics of plants: genetic basis of local adaptation and the consequences of genetic drift for adaptation and population persistence.

Earth Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences

Dr. Nathaniel A. Lifton Associate Professor and Associate Head

Phone: (765) 494-0754

Email: nlifton@purdue.edu

Area of Expertise: Geomorphology and Quaternary geology, in situ cosmogenic nuclides.

Research interests: Studies of in situ cosmogenic nuclide production systematics, and applications to Earch surface processes in glaciated landscapes and deserts, paleoclimate, and active tectonics.

Entomology

John Couture Assistant Professor of Entomology

Phone: (765) 494-8680

Email: couture@purdue.edu

Matthew Ginzel Associate Professor of Entomology and Forestry and Natural Resources

Phone: (765) 494-9369

Email: mginzel@purdue.edu

Research interest: Chemically-mediated host colonization and mating behaviors of wood-boring beetles, which increasingly threaten North American hardwood forests.

Laura L Ingwell Research Assistant of Entomology

Phone: (765) 494-6167

Email: lingwell@purdue.edu

Ian Kaplan Professor of Entomology

Phone: (765) 494-7207

Email: ikaplan@purdue.edu

Area of expertise: Insect ecology

Research interests: The ecology, behavior and management of pest and beneficial insects in Midwestern agroecosystems.

Food Science

Yaohua (Betty) Feng Assistant Professor of Food Science

Phone: (765) 494-0331

Email: yhfeng@purdue.edu

Area of expertise: Human Perception and Behavior of Food. Food Safety

Research and Extension interests: Risk assessment and communication to enhance microbial safety of foods; using interdisciplinary tools to investigate gaps in food safety practice compliance and develop novel food safety strategies.

Jen-Yi Huang Assistant Professor of Food Science

Phone: (765) 496-6034

Email: huang874@purdue.edu

Area of expertise: Food process sustainability

Research interest: Green food processing techniques to improve energy and water use efficiency towards environmental sustainability; life cycle-based models to elucidate the complex of food-energy-water relationships and their dynamics.

Forestry and Natural Resources

Paris Collingsworth Research Assistant Professor

Phone: (317) 886-7449

Email: pcolling@purdue.edu

Research interests: Ecosystem dynamics in the Laurentian Great Lakes

John (Barny) Dunning Professor of Wildlife Ecology

Phone: (765) 494-3565

Email: jdunning@purdue.edu

Areas of expertise: Avian ecology, conservation biology

Research interests: How native wildlife species are affected by changes in the quality and quantity of habitat across landscape scales; environmental education and interacting with the public on natural resource issues.

Jeff Dukes Professor of Forestry and Natural Resources and Biological Sciences, Director of Purdue Climate Change Research Center

Phone: (765) 494-9461

Email: jsdukes@purdue.edu

Area of expertise: Climate change

Research interests: How ecosystems respond to climate and atmospheric change; impacts of invasive species on ecosystems; improving the capacity of ecosystem and Earth system models to accurately represent ecological processes.

Elizabeth (Liz) Flaherty Assistant Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Habitat Management

Phone: (765) 494-3567

Email: eflaher@purdue.edu

Area of expertise: Wildlife habitat management

Research interests: Wildlife associations with habitat and applying the results to wildlife management using both field- and laboratory-based research to study wildlife ecology.

Reuben R Goforth Assistant Professor of Forestry and Natural Resources

Phone: (765) 494-0009

Email: rgoforth@purdue.edu

Research interests: Aquatic animals and their habitats, including aquaculture; interactions between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems; fates and effects of pollutants; appropriate management practices for the protection and use of aquatic ecosystems.

Jacob Daniel Hosen Assistant Professor of Forestry and Natural Resources

Phone: (765) 496-0260

Email: jhosen@purdue.edu

Doug Jacobs Fred M Van Eck Professor of Forest Biology and Associate Head of Extension

Phone: (765) 494-3608

Email: djacobs@purdue.edu

Michael A Jenkins Professor of Forest Ecology

Phone: (765) 494-3602

Email: jenkinma@purdue.edu

Reasearch interest: Ecology of natural systems; forest biology

Zhao Ma Associate Professor of Natural Resource Social Science

Phone: (765) 496-2422

Email: zhaoma@purdue.edu

Area of expertise: Natural resource decision making; human dimensions of natural resources

Research interest: Natural resource decision-making processes of individuals and organizations.

Richard Meilan Professor of Molecular Tree Physiology

Phone: (765) 496-2287

Email: rmeilan@purdue.edu

Research interest: Ecology of natural systems; forest biology; genetics

Bryan Pijanowski Professor of Human-Environment Modeling & Analysis Laboratory

Phone: (765) 496-2215

Email: bpijanow@purdue.edu

Area of expertise: Socio-ecological systems

Dr. Linda Prokopy NRES Co-Director & Professor of Forestry

Phone: (765) 496-2221

Email: lprokopy@purdue.edu

FORS 201B

Michael Saunders Associate Professor of Ecology and Natural Resources

Phone: (765) 430-1440

Email: msaunder@purdue.edu

Research interests: Sustainable management of Central Hardwood forests; natural disturbance-based silviculture; fire ecology of oak-hickory forests; effects of silvicultural practices on wood quality and timber value.

Maria (Marisol) Sepúlveda Professor of Ecology and Natural Systems and Associate Head of Research

Phone: (765) 496-3428

Email: mssepulv@purdue.edu

Area of expertise: Ecotoxicology

Mitchell Zischke Clinical Assistant Professor

Phone: (765) 494-9717

Email: mzischke@purdue.edu

Area of expertise: Fish and marine biology

Extension interests: Connecting anglers, scientists and managers in Great Lakes fisheries; assisting with private landowners in Indiana with pond management.

Horticulture and Landscape Architecture

David Barbarash Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture

Phone: (765) 496-3887

Email: dbarbara@purdue.edu

Area of expertise: Urban design and urban ecology

Research interests: Urban ecology, systems ecology and associated socio-cultural impacts of environmental factors in the built environment.

Steve Hallett Professor of Horticulture

Phone: (765) 494-7649

Email: halletts@purdue.edu

Area of expertise: Plant ecology

Research interests: Ecology of plant pathogen interactions: development of bioherbicides for weed control; mechanisms of herbicide resistance; ecology of the interactions between weeds and soil microbial communities in agricultural and natural systems.

Peter Hirst Professor of Horticulture

Phone: (765) 494-1323

Email: hirst@purdue.edu

Area of Expertise: Pomology

Research interests: Tree architecture; fruit development.

Lori Hoagland Associate Professor of Horticulture

Phone: (765) 494-1426

Email: lhoaglan@purdue.edu

Area of expertise: Microbial ecology of horticultural systems

Research interests: Soil microbial ecology and plant-microbial relationships to address challenges of feeding the world’s growing population, including soil and water degradation, rapidly evolving pests and increasing climate instability.

Ariana Torres Assistant Professor and Marketing Specialist

Phone: (765) 494-8781

Email: torres2@purdue.edu

Area of Expertise: Agricultural economics – decision-making modeling

Research interests: The intersection of economics and the specialty crops industry: economic modeling of adoption of new technologies; decision making tools for specialty crop growers; economic impact of growers’ decision-making processes.

Aaron Thompson Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture

Phone: (765) 494-8781

Email: awthomps@purdue.edu

Area of Expertise: Using applied social-ecological science to achieve better decision making at the interface of land use planning and natural resource management

His research explores what motivates landowners to engage in conservation efforts, uses spatial analysis and geodesign techniques to visualize and respond to changing land use, and identifies pathways for improving stakeholder participation across three primary areas, including: landscape preservation and stewardship, human dimensions of water resource management, and sustainable community development.