University of Windsor is home to leading research in a variety of fields. Below is a catalogue of various academic departments along with outstanding researchers who are connecting their efforts to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The University of Windsor offers several undergraduate and graduate academic programs and program options that address diverse environmental issues including sustainabilty. These include science, engineering, non-science, as well as inter/multidisciplinary programs and program options. Units that administer environmental programs and program options include:
Department of Civil Environmental Engineering
Learn about the fascinating sustainability-related research currently undertaken by the University of Windsor faculty members:
Ihsan Al-Aasm
School of the Environment
Stable isotope and environmental geochemistry; diagenesis; sedimentology
Ahmet Alpas
Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering
Lightweight Materials for Automotive Products and Manufacturing Processes.
Abdul-Fattah Asfour
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Transport processes in non-electrolyte solutions in membranes; Isometric properties of lubricating oil.
Ram Balachandar
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Flow past bluff bodies; Cavitation; Sprays; Local scour; Hydraulic structures; Mixing; Jets; Wall jets.
Tanya Basok
Sociology
Community Gardening, Borders and Environment
Clinton Beckford
Faculty of Education
Tropical geography; Resource sustainability; Environmental education; Geography education; Traditional and indigenous environmental knowledge; Sustainable agriculture and food security; Tropical food production systems.
Niharendu Biswas
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Drinking water disinfection; Land treatment of wastewater; Hazardous waste treatment; Water quality; Water and wastewater in developing countries
Rupp Carriveau
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Fluid-structure interaction; Wind energy; Wind transport; Energy storage and management; Cybernetic systems
Xiang Chen
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Network-Based Control System; Robust and Nonlinear Control; Vision-Based Motion Control; Control Applications in Automotive and Manufacturing Systems
Shaohong Cheng
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Fluid structure interaction; Environmental engineering; Civil engineering; Structural dynamics; Numerical simulation; Wind tunnel; Bluff body aerodynamics; Vibration and control.
Maria Cioppa
School of the Environment
Paleomagnetism; Environmental magnetism; Environmental geophysics.
Sreekanta Das
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Environmental engineering; Civil engineering; Marine structures; Conventional building; Steel structure fatigue; Steel structures; Energy pipeline structures.
Stephanie Doucet
Intergrative Biology
Behavioural ecology; Evolution; Animal communication.
Ken Drouillard
School of the Environment/GLIER
In situ animal bioenergetics; Contaminant bioaccumulation modeling; Environmental monitoring and management models; Bioavailability; Contaminant food web modeling.
Jamey Essex
Political Science
Development; Geography; Agriculture and food; Environmental studies.
Aaron Fisk
School of the Environment/GLIER
Ecotoxicology; Trophic ecology; Chemical tracers; Fish movement.
Amy Fitzgerald
Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology
Green criminology; Animal studies; Environmental sociology.
Joel Gagnon
School of the Environment/GLIER
Environmental and analytical chemistry; Isotopic and elemental tracers; Environmental assessment and monitoring.
Patrícia Galvão Ferreira
Faculty of Law/GLIER
Climate Action, international and Transnational Law
Faouzi Ghrib
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Structural dynamics; Dam engineering; Design of steel struts; Earthquake engineering; Probabilistic mechanics; Design of concrete; Finite elements.
Robin Gras
School of Computer Science
Artificial life, theoretical biology, ecosystem simulation, predator-prey model, bioinformatics, combinatorial optimization, machine learning.
Alice Grgicak-Mannion
School of the Environment/GLIER
Global positioning systems; Geographic Information Systems (GIS); Geospatial metadata systems; GIS and human health; Environmental modelling; Land use regression and air pollution models.
Daniel Heath
Integrative Biology/GLIER
Evolution; Ecology and conservation biology; Fish genetics; Environmental genomics.
Paul Henshaw
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Air pollution from combustion; Environmentally-friendly coatings.
Dennis Higgs
Integrative Biology
Acoustic biology; Sensory ecology of vertebrates; Environmental effects of noise; Fish biology; Hearing.
Chris Houser
School of the Environment
Barrier island evolution; Rip current development and beach user perception of the rip hazard in Florida, Texas and Costa Rica.
Narayan Kar
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Energy-efficient motor drives for hybrid electric vehicle and robotics applications; ANN/Fuzzy based vector control of DFIG in wind power generation; Efficient and economical design of electrical machines; Development of power line fault classification unit for Essex Power Corporation.
Jerald Lalman
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Wastewater treatment; Renewable energy; Hydrogen; Biotechnology; Bioprocessing; Photocatalysis catalysis.
Oliver Love
Integrative Biology/GLIER
Evolutionary and behavioural ecology; Arctic and temperate avian physiology.
Hugh MacIsaac
School of the Environment/GLIER
Aquatic community ecology; Biological invasions; Zooplankton ecology; Conservation biology.
Hanna Maoh
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Design and application of integrated transportation; Land use and environmental models; Environmental impacts of urban and cross-border transportation; Sustainable transportation and urbanism.
Dan Mennill
Integrative Biology
Behavioural ecology; Animal communication; Ornithology; Tropical ecology.
Kim Nelson
Communication Studies
Environment; Popular culture.
Colin Novak
Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering
Acoustic measurement; Environmental noise impact; Automotive sound quality; Environmental vibration impact; Noise control; Psychoacoustic measurement; Vibration; Noise intensity; Acoustics; Noise qualification testing; Sound power determination; Psychoacoustics.
Trevor Pitcher
Integrative Biology
Genetics; Genetic quality and aquatic contaminant stress; Conservation genetics; Captive breeding; Supporting breeding; Aquaculture.
Ali Polat
School of the Environment
Mountain building processes; Early history of the earth; Radiogenic isotope geochemistry; Trace element geochemistry; Archean greenstone belts; Anorthosites complexes; Paleosols.
Graham Reader
Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering
Energy conversion; Stirling cycle machines; Underwater vehicles; Clean diesel engine technology.
Reza Riahi
Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering
Tribology of metal forming, lubrication, machining, surface engineering, batteries, coatings, corrosion, composite materials, aerospace materials.
Philip Rose
Philosophy
Environmental philosophy (Philosophy of nature; Environmental ethics); Philosophy of technology.
Iain Samson
School of the Environment
Aqueous geochemistry; Mineralogy; Mineral-fluid interactions.
Christina Semeniuk
Integrative Biology/GLIER
Process-driven predictive ecology of resource-use conflicts: behavioral ecology; applied ecology; agent-based modeling; scenario planning; human dimensions of wildlife; geographic information systems.
Rajesh Seth
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Contaminant fate during sewage treatment monitoring/modelling; Water and wastewater treatment; Ozonation and advanced oxidation processes.
Andrzej Sobiesiak
Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering
Internal Combustion Engines, Alternate Fuels, Combustion, Measurements in Flows and Flame.
Jacqueline Stagner
Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering
Solar Water Purification, and Biobased and Biodegradable Polymers.
Rod Strickland
Visual Arts
Sculpture; Green Corridor; Visual art; Environmental art.
Edwin Tam
Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering
Environmental engineering; Civil engineering; Life cycle analysis; Recycling; Waste management; Brownfield redevelopment.
Keith Taylor
Chemistry and Biochemistry
Applied Enzymology and Environmental Biotechnology.
David Ting
Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering
Turbulence; Combustion; Fluid-Structure Interactions; Energy Systems and Analysis; Aerodynamics; Wind Turbines.
Sherah VanLaerhoven
Integrative Biology
Insect ecology and behaviour; Biological control; Organic waste management; Forensic entomology.
Kent Walker
Odette School of Business
Organizations and the natural environment.
Chris Weisener
School of the Environment/GLIER
Applied geochemistry and biogeochemistry; Analytical geochemistry; Contaminant stress on ecosystems in changing global environments; Environmental tracers; Applied synchrotron science.
Jennifer Willet
Visual Arts
BioArt; Contemporary art; Biological and digital technologies; Social and political criticism; Ecologies.
Jonathan Wu
Electrical and Computing Engineering
Computer vision, active vision, embedded vision; Machine learning, statistical pattern recognition; Biomedical image analysis; Wireless sensor systems, distributed sensing, sensor fusion.
Iris Xu
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Air quality monitoring; Air quality modeling; Exposure assessment; Air pollution control; Measurement and parameterization of air-surface exchange of air pollutant.
Jianwen Yang
School of the Environment
Environmental geophysics (including geo-electrical, electromagnetic, and seismic methods); Hydrogeology and groundwater contamination.
Ming Zheng
Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering
Diesel emission control; Active exhaust after treatment; Combustion; Alternative fuel engines; Thermal/Fluid systems; IC Engine modeling and emission measurements; Clean air; Environmental protection; High-efficiency combustion
Biao Zhou
Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering
Electric/Hybrid vehicles; Monitoring and control technologies; Energy storage; Fuel cell; Combustion; Experimental and computational fluid dynamics/heat transfer/combustion/electrochemistry/multi-phase flow; Solar energy; System design
The Office of Sustainability, acting as a resource hub looks to inspire and equip the campus community to engage and lead sustainability initiatives and programs. Here are a few tips for incorporating sustainability into course material:
- Key Competencies: Practical Approches to Teaching Sustainability, joint project by the Sustainability Curriculum Consortium and AASHE with an aim to provide practical guidance on how to effectively teach sustainability competencies
- Campus as a living lab. Encourage students to think of the campus as a sustainability laboratory; assign projects that allow students to create solutions to sustainability issues they identify in their own classrooms, dormitories and dining halls. Have a braimstoring session with the Sustainability Office and/or other faculties, connecting students with existing campus resources and local organizations.
- Embrace interdiscipllinarity. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals proivde a broader understanding and framework for the interconnectedness of 'sustainability'; review the goals and gain inspriation for course content, syllabi updates, group projects and new course development.
- Avoid doom and gloom.
- Peer engagement and support. Engage students in group projects and discussions