Teaching

This course gives to students the first fundamentals of environmental science through field trips and laboratories.  The goal of the laboratory and field investigation course is to complement the classroom portion by allowing students to learn about the environment through firsthand observation. Experiences both in the laboratory and in the field provide students with important opportunities to test concepts and principles that are introduced in the classroom, explore specific problems with a depth not easily achieved otherwise. In these experiences students can employ alternative learning styles to reinforce fundamental concepts and principles. Because all students have a stake in the future of their environment, such activities can motivate students to study environmental science in greater depth. 

In this course, students are able to understand the elemental cycles (especially C, H, O, N, P, S and metals) between earth’s major zones including atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere and the human influences on the natural material circulation.  Students will 1) identify the chemical cycles that take place on the Earth, 2) be able to explain the various geochemical reactions that are important in biogeochemical cycles, and 3) will be able to identify the environments in which these cycles occur, how they differ, and what instrumental, laboratory, and field methods are used to measure these processes. 

This course is to provide an overview of the principles and case studies to understand the processes and techniques of site characterization, remediation, and monitoring of surface and subsurface environments contaminated with various contaminants. Based on this course students should be able to evaluate existing remediation strategies/technologies and future designs using student’s basic process understanding and knowledge obtained from the current literature.

This course will focus on general and advanced concepts of subsurface biogeochemistry and environmental microbiology. The target audience consists of graduate students whose research is directly or peripherally related to microbiological processes. Non-microbiologists interested in subsurface biogeochemistry are also encouraged to take this class. 

This course will focus on general and advanced concepts of global carbon cycle and its impact on human. Achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 requires global efforts and collective engagements from all sectors of human society, especially academia. Carbon cycle, which plays a crucial role in global environmental change, is directly affected by anthropogenic activities and intimately coupled with other global elemental cycle. This course helps students to gain scientific knowledge of the global carbon biogeochemical cycle and to develop integrated experties to identify emerging global and local issues, create innovative solutions, and implement effective policies. 

The course introduces recent theories and emerging analytical techniques to understand the roles of microbes and microbial processes in driving geological and environmental processes. Topics include biomineralization, microbial weathering, and bioremediation. The target audience consists of graduate students whose research is directly or peripherally related to microbiological processes.