Thesis Topics
If you are a junior EV major, it is time to start thinking about the possibility of a senior thesis, particularly the thesis topic. Sophomores, it's never too early to start planning your thesis, such as travel funds or specific research plans.
Here we have compiled a list of EV faculty and their research interests. Look it through and see if any topic or area of interest catches your eye.
Research Themes & Study Areas:
Miro Kummel
- Predator-Prey Dynamics in natural and agricultural settings:
- Spatial dynamics of ladybug-aphid predator-prey dynamics on short grass prairies. Field work (May+June) and mathematical modeling using R.
- Spatial analysis of habitat use by mountain lions and elk in Catamount Center area on Pikes Peak
- Dynamics of insect pests and their natural enemies (several possibilities on Western Slope and in the Pueblo area)
- Treeline dynamics:
- Spatial pattern formation at the treeline edge and its relevance for treeline advance in response to climate change (drones)
- Microclimatology of treelines (Drones)
- Dendrochronology and dendroclimatology of treeline advance.
- Vegetation studies:
- Spatial structure of tundra or prairie vegetation (drones)
- Indicators of rangeland health from remote sensing using drones (Chico Basin Ranch)
- Limnology:
- Phytoplankton and zooplankton dynamics in relation to nutrient loading in eutrophic water bodies.
Corina McKendry
- City sustainability
- Environmental justice
- Climate adaptation
- Globalization and the environment
Mike Angstadt
- Linking global environmental politics & international environmental law
- Norm diffusion: how/why new institutions spread (e.g., environmental courts), and implications
- Norm implementation: how domestic institutions incorporate international environmental la
- Nonstate environmental governance: NGOs in global environmental governance and law
- Additional areas of longstanding interest
- Alaskan environmental law & policy
- Renewable energy policy and equity
- Climate law/governance
- Reshaping global environmental politics & international environmental law
- Rights of nature movements
- Earth system law
- Opportunities/mechanisms for exchange between: (1) environmental judges, (2) judges and academics, and (3) disciplines (environmental law & environmental politics)
Charlotte Gabrielsen
- Landscape & spatial ecology (to characterize the influence of climate and human land use on landscape patterns and processes)
- Effects of spatiotemporal ecosystem dynamics on biodiversity (particularly, in wetland ecosystems)
- GIS & remote sensing (as tools to inform conservation & management planning)
Jean Lee
- Smallholder agricultural mitigation and adaptation
- Gender equity and justice
- Community-based Management
Allison Lawman
- Past, present, and future climate change
- Oceanography and atmospheric science
- Tropical climate variability
- The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
- Tropical Pacific decadal variability
- Abrupt climate change
- Climate proxies and coral geochemistry
- Stable isotope geochemistry
- Trace metal geochemistry
- Climate model output
- Climate impacts on coral reefs (thermal stress and ocean acidification)
Sylvan Goldberg
English
- Pre-1900 American literature
- Environmental literature
- Literature of the American West
- The relationship between place, nature, identity, and literary form
- Affect/emotion, gender (queer ecology), and temporality
Marion Hourdequin
Philosophy- Environmental ethics
- Ethics & climate change, including climate justice and the ethics of climate engineering
- Ethics and philosophy of ecological restoration; restoration in landscapes with complex socio-ecological histories
- Philosophy, ethics, and the Anthropocene
- Nature in East Asian traditions of thought (esp. Confucianism and Daoism)
- Philosophy of science, values in science, science-society relationship
- Philosophy of ecology
- Additional areas of interest: environmental justice; philosophy of ecosystem services; Aldo Leopold; ethics of de-extinction
Eric Perramond
Southwest Studies
- Environmental ethics
- Water resources, law, and water policy
- Natural Resource Management & Conservation
- Decolonizing Conservation (broadly - Bears Ears, Valles Caldera, etc.)
- Militarization of the American West/Southwest (Border wall, nuclear sacrifice zones, military open spaces)
- Areas: Southwest U.S., Mexico, Latin America, Western Europe
- Specific Topics
- Water adjudications of water resources in the western U.S.
- Impacts of neo-liberal economic policies in Mexico
- Livelihood and environmental justice crises in the Southwestern U.S.
Mike Taber
Education
- Boundary layer meteorology – energy fluxes over heterogeneous surfaces
- Biometeorology – energy flux across interfaces in ecosystems
Henry Fricke
Geology
- Paleoclimatology
- Geochemistry
Amy Kohout
History
- Environmental history
- U.S. West
- U.S. empire
- History of natural history
- Museum studies
- Science and technology studies
Shane Heschel
Organismal Biology and Ecology
- Physiological ecology of plant populations, particularly in stressful environments
- Local adaptation and the evolution of physiological mechanisms
- Factors driving the local extinction of plant populations
- Population genetics and Conservation genetics
Eli Fahrenkrug
Chemistry
- Probing Aerosol and Dust Particle Migration within Individual Snow Grains and their Impacts on Snow Albedo and Radiative Forcing Models
- Developing New Citizen-Accessible Water Quality Diagnostics for Use in Low-Resource Areas
- The Fountain Valley Water Project: a local community-based citizen science project responding to PFAS contamination in drinking water
Howard Drossman
- Primary interests:
- How do students develop conceptions of ecological stewardship?
- Environmental education
- Integral approaches to studying the environment
- Mindfulness and the environment
- Secondary interests:
- Atmospheric chemistry
- Aquatic chemistry
- Biogeochemical cycling
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Last updated: 08/02/2023