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Student Research


The Department of Environmental Sciences is pleased to offer students opportunities to apply their in-class learning to hands-on research opportunities with ENVS faculty. Students may explore different avenues while pursuing research.

Some students begin with a research sequence (ENVS 299, 399, 499) as early as their freshmen or sophomore year. Others may begin the research sequence and conclude with an honors thesis. For students interested in research that takes them beyond the Emory campus, ENVS offers financial support through our Lester and Turner Research Grant Funds.

We encourage students to approach faculty early with research interests. As a testament to how research culminates for some of our students, we have listed the most recent honors thesis titles from ENVS students. ENVS students do NOT need to pursue an honors thesis to conduct research, this is meant to simply offer a snap-shot of student research in ENVS.

Honors and MS Thesis Research by Year

2024 Honors and MS Thesis Research

Nick Chang (BS ENVS): “Thinking Like A Salamander: Evaluating habitat use of the Talladega seal salamander (Desmognathus cheaha) in metro-Atlanta headwater streams.” Faculty Advisor: Dr. Carolyn Keogh 

Yaxi Du (MS ENVS): “Decoding the Hidden Mechanisms of Soil C Cycle in Response to Climate Change.” Faculty Advisor: Dr. Debjani Sihi

Murray Sternberg (BS ENVS): “Climate smart farming practices and soil carbon cycle proxies.” Faculty Advisor: Dr. Debjani Sihi 

Amelia Tamez 24C (BS ENVS): “Trilobites Burrowing, Walking, and Feeding in Tidal Flat Facies of the Sequatchie Formation (Late Ordovician), Georgia, USA.” Faculty Advisor: Dr. Anthony Martin

Claire Todaro (BS ENVS): “An Exploration into EcoDistricts: Sustainable Urban Planning on the Neighborhood Scale.” Faculty Advisor: Dr. Michael Rich

2023 Honors and MS Thesis Research

Faith Breen (MS ENVS): “Effects of anthropogenic disturbance and environmental factors on patterns of parasitism in Cross River gorillas (Gorilla gorilla diehli).” Faculty advisor: Professor Tom Gillespie

Kelly Coles (MS ENVS): “Habitat and Regeneration Requirements to Sustain Populations of Schwalbea americana.” Faculty Advisor: Professor Lance Gunderson

Ilana Fischer (BS ENVS): "Loss and Risk Affecting Federally Insured Crops in the US." Faculty Advisor: Emily Burchfield
 
Jack Galanek (MS ENVS): “Bird-Strike Risk Factors and Prevention in Atlanta.” Faculty Advisor: Professor John Wegner

Marlon Gant (MS ENVS): "The Association of Soil Lead and Children’s Blood Lead Levels in Georgia." Faculty Advisor: Professor Eri Saikawa

Jack Miklaucic (BS ENVS): “Going Beyond Carbon: Mitigating Nitrogen Pollution from Agriculture in the U.S.” Faculty Advisor: Professor Eri Saikawa

Cooper Read (MS ENVS): “A Retrospective Study on the Effects of Urbanization on the Plethodontid Salamander Species of Streams Surrounding Emory University.” Faculty Advisor: Professor John Wegner

Joseph Stockert (MS ENVS): "Population dynamics of the rare threatened gooseberry Ribes echinellum." Faculty Advisor: Professor Lance Gunderson

Amanda Wolf (BS ENVS): “Littorina obtusata grazing on Fucus macroalgae: Effects of trematode infection and habitat temperature.” Faculty Advisor: Professor Carolyn Keogh

2022 Honors and MS Thesis Research

Haoran Cheng (BS ENVS) - “Estimating short- and long-term impact of COVID-19 on air quality, human health, and economic losses in China through machine learning counterfactual simulations.”  Faculty advisor: Dr. Eri Saikawa

Jared Gingrich (MS ENVS) - "Spatial Patterns of Food Access in the Appalachian Region of the US.” Faculty advisor: Dr. Emily Burchfield

Kenneth Ho (BS ENVS) - “Effects of Rising Sea-Levels on Coastal Marsh Migration and Carbon Sequestration along the Georgia Coast.” Faculty advisor: Dr. Carolyn Keogh

Emily Isaac (BA ENVS) - "On the fence - Role of the attitude-behavior gap in residential yard management." Faculty advisor: Dr. Emily Burchfield

Olivia Milloway (BS ENVS) - “Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) in American bullfrogs - Assessing the role of bullfrogs as a pathogen reservoir in California's Bd-endemic ponds.”  Faculty advisor: Dr. Dave Civitello (Biology)

Eden Yonas (BS ENVS) - "The Looming Threat of Reduced Storm Decay - Measuring Multi-Regional State and Local Capabilities to Handle Hurricanes."  Faculty advisor: Dr. Michael Rich

2021 Honors and MS Thesis Research

Ali Perez (MS ENVS) - "Evaluation of fitness-disrupting chemical for the control of Aedes albopictus mosquitoes." Faculty Advisor: Gonzalo Vazquez-Prokopec

Georgia Spies (BS ENVS) - "Geographical N₂0 Emission Mitigation Potential for Different Agricultural Techniques in Corn Production." Faculty Advisor: Eri Saikawa 

Yanyu Wang (MS ENVS) - "Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emissions under Different Cover Crop Systems." Faculty Advisor: Eri Saikawa

2020 Honors and MS Thesis Research

Katelyn Boisvert (BS ENVS), "The Impact of Urbanization on Environmental Systems and Applications to Urban Sustainability: A Case Study of the Atlanta Metro Region, Georgia." Faculty Advisor: Shaunna Donaher

Maya Bradford (BS ENVS), "Assessing species diversity from insect trace fossils from the Cretaceous (Campanian) Two Medicine Formation, Choteau, Montana." Faculty Advisor: Anthony Martin

Danielle Crownover (MS ENVS),"Amphibian's behavioral reaction to artificial light at night in Cuscowilla, VA." Faculty Advisor: John Wegner

Julia Glickman (BS ENVS), "Measuring the role of Policy Diffusion in American Cities’ Climate Change Mitigation Actions." Faculty Advisor: Michael Rich

Annie Schiffer (BS ENVS), "Connecting Relative Differences in Floral Phenology to Reproductive Success." Faculty Advisor: Berry Brosi

Emily Strahan (MS ENVS), "A cross-comparison of enteric pathogen prevalence and patterns of infection within and between wild-living Cross River gorillas (Gorilla gorilla diehli) and eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii)." Faculty Advisor: Tom Gillespie

Xinyi Yao (MS ENVS), "Phytoremediation of Lead-contaminated Soil in West Atlanta." Faculty Advisor: Eri Saikawa

2019 Honors and MS Thesis Research

Lauren Balotin (BA ENVS), “Analysis of Atlanta Residents’ Knowledge Regarding Heavy Metal Exposures Associated with Urban Agriculture.” Committee: Eri Saikawa, Uriel Kitron, and Sheila Tefft

Candelaria Bergero (MS Thesis),“Understanding the Mechanisms of Diffusion of National Renewable Energy Targets.” Committee: Eri Saikawa, Michael Rich, Lance Gunderson 

Halle Bradshaw (MS Thesis),“The Effect of a State’s Commitment on Policy Responsiveness of the Endangered Species Act.” Committee: Eri Saikawa, John Wegner, Michael Rich

Chen Chen (MS Thesis), "Present and Potential Future Contributions of Ship Emissions to Air Quality and Human Health in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region, China." Primary Advisor: Eri Saikawa

Ellen Dymit (BS ENVS), “Experimental Evaluation of Territoriality and Associated Behaviors in the Spotted Dusky Salamander (Desmognathus conanti).” Committee: John Wegner, Carolyn Keogh, Gonzalo Vazquez-Prokopec Chris Beck & Amanda Starnes

Kelly Endres (BS ENVS),“Widening Niche Breadth: Investigating the plasticity of plant-pollinator interactions.” Committee: Berry Brosi,  Carolyn Keogh, Eloise Carter

Arbour Guthrie (BS ENVS), “Sedimentary and Ecological Interactions of Shoreline Management and Feral Horses on Cumberland Island, Georgia.” Committee: Anthony Martin, Susan Tamasi, Carolyn Keogh. Michael Page

Meg Withers (BS ENVS), “Population Density of the Northern Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris kenyoni) as an Indicator of Strep Syndrome Transmission Method.” Commitee: Carolyn Keogh, Tracy Yandle, Chris Beck

2018 Honors and MS Thesis Research

Sahana Kuthyar (MS thesis) - "Prevalence and distribution of Giardia intestinalis genotypes in black and gold howler monkeys, Alouatta caraya, in relation to interspecies overlap and inter-annual variability in Northern Argentina"

Aspen Ono - "The Impact of Environmental Disasters on the Migration of Political Refugees."

Lydia Rautman - "Effects of anthroprogenic influence on patterns of infection with enteric zoonotic pathogens in brown mouse lemur Microcebus rufus at Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar."

2017 Honors and MS Thesis Research

Morika Hensley (MS Thesis) - "Patterns of conflict and coexistence between agro-pastoralists and snow leopards in Ladakh, India"

Will Koval - "The interactive effect of environmental stochasticity and resource driven intraspecific competition on Culex quinquefasciatus (Diptera:Culicidae) larval productivity"

Ginny Leoffler "A Comparative Evaluation and Application of Established Urban Carbon Sequestration Tools"

Emily Li  “Climate Change Is in the Air”

Geoff Martin (MS Thesis) - "Filling the Federal Void? Determining the Effectiveness of State-Level Climate Policies"

Andriana Miljanic - "Bee Communities in Biofuel Production Plantations: Interactive Effects of Local-Level Management and Landscape Context"

Vicky Wu - "Garbage burning in South Asia – how important is it to the regional air quality?"

2016 Honors Research

Laila Atalla - "Release from interspecific competition results in species niche expansion in bumble bees"

Jamie Botsch - "Impacts of Forest Fragmentation on Species Diversity of Orchid Bees (Apidae: Euglossini) in the Chocó Biodiversity Hotspot of Northwest Ecuador"

Hsini (Cindy) Chu - "Contaminant removal of non-pollen material in palynologic samples for DNA barcoding"