Environmental Life Sciences PhD Program Faculty
Program Director
Cadillo-Quiroz studies how microbes participate in ecosystem and applied processes.
Arianne Cease is a sustainability scientist with a focus on the ecology and physiology of organisms in coupled natural and human systems.
Environmental Life Sciences (PhD)
Environmental Life Sciences is a novel graduate degree that provides doctorate-level training in several complementary...
Program Faculty
Abbaszadegan is a professor of environmental microbiology and engineering and founding director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Water & Environmental Technology (WET) Center at ASU.
Anbar is a President’s Professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor at ASU, and a Distinguished Sustainability Scholar in the Global Institute of Sustainability. One major focus is the deep time history of O2.
Anderies has a joint appointment in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change and the School of Sustainability. He joined the ASU faculty in 2002.
Prof. Andino's research focuses on chemical kinetics and mechanisms as applied to air quality (atmospheric chemistry and air pollution control) and energy themes. She is a registered professional engineer.
Michael Angilletta combines models and experiments to understand how animal populations adapt to changing environments.
Batemen is a field ecologist interested in wildlife conservation and human-wildlife interactions in urban ecosystems.
Bean applies bioanalytical chemistry methods to characterize microbial metabolomes and identify biomarkers of lung disease.
Brownell is a neuroscientist turned full-time education researcher, who teaches undergraduate biology while studying biology education.
Cadillo-Quiroz studies how microbes participate in ecosystem and applied processes.
Arianne Cease is a sustainability scientist with a focus on the ecology and physiology of organisms in coupled natural and human systems.
Dan Childers research portfolio includes urban ecosystems, the ecology-design nexus, water dynamics in cities, urban sustainability and urban wetlands.
Collins is an evolutionary ecologist whose research group studies the role of host-pathogen interactions in species decline and extinction, as well as ecological ethics.
Day is a plant ecologist who studies factors that control plant performance, plant litter decomposition and carbon cycling.
DeNardo has been a faculty member with the School of Life Sciences since 1998 and has published more than 100 scientific papers in the field of environmental physiology.
Deviche is an animal physiologist who studies how the environment controls the reproductive system and stress responses of vertebrates.
Astrobiologist, paleontologist, sedimentologist & petroleum geologist He helped establish the fields of Astrobiology & Exopaleontology, redefined NASA's exploration strategy into: the search for life is the search for water
Ferry's research focuses on the evolution of jaws and their function in the aquatic realm, as well as performance of biomaterials.
Garcia-Pichel is the Director of the Center for Applied and Fundamental Microbiomics. He studies the roles, adaptations and impacts of microbes in natural environments, from desert soils to shallow marine waters.
Gerber aims to accelerate the success of biodiversity management and sustainable biodiversity outcomes by fostering relationships among academics and decision makers.
Gile is an evolutionary microbiologist who studies single-celled eukaryotes (protists) and symbiosis.
Gordon applies isotope analysis to study the history of early Earth paleoredox, and human isotope variations, including cancer, metabolism, bone loss, and geographic residence history for forensic purposes.
Grimm is an ecosystem scientist who studies desert streams and cities and their resilience to extreme events.
Hall is an ecologist and conservation scientist who studies connections between people and the environment. She is the faculty lead for the Conservation Bio & Ecology degree program and an award-winning teacher in her field.
Harrison is an environmental physiologist who studies how insects function, interact with their environment and evolve.
Hartnett has joint appointments in the School of Earth and Space Exploration and the School of Molecular Sciences. Her current research interests are in the areas of biogeochemistry, astrobiology, and organic geochemistry.
Herckes is a Professor in ASU’s School of Molecular Sciences and affiliate professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration. His research areas include analytical, environmental and atmospheric chemistry.
Silvie Huijben is an evolutionary biologist who studies the evolutionary ecology of resistant organisms. Her aim is to optimize treatment strategies that minimize resistance evolution, with a focus on malaria.
Kinzig looks at how humans shape and influence their natural environments and what this means for human health and Earth's ecosystems. Her work focuses on ecosystem services and the resilience of natural-resource systems.
Krajmalnik-Brown's lab uses microbiological skills, genomic techniques and environmental engineering to study biodegradation of water contaminants, biotechnology for renewable bioenergy production and the gut microbiome.
Kuang is the author or co-author of over 190 refereed publications and 2 major textbooks in mathematical biology. He has done extensive work in developing data-based differential equation models in biology and medicine.
With a research emphasis in applied ecology, Lewis' research incorporates the principles of wildlife biology, landscape ecology, and conservation biology.
Grant McFadden directs the Biodesign Center for Immunotherapy, Vaccines, and Virotherapy (B-CIVV) at ASU. The McFadden lab studies how poxviruses that cause immunosuppression interact with the host immune system.
McGraw is an integrative behavioral ecologist who primarily studies the colors of animals such as birds to understand the costs, benefits and evolution of visual signals.
Moore joined ASU on Polytechnic campus in 2015. She studies wildlife ecology, physiology, immunology, and behavior.
Neuer is a biological oceanographer and plankton ecologist and studies the oceanic carbon cycle, particularly the role of plankton organisms in uptake and sequestration of anthropogenic carbon dioxide.
Paaijmans is a disease ecologist with a strong interest in how the biology and ecology of parasites, viruses and insect vectors shape the distribution and intensity of infectious diseases
Studies how biological tools can be used to increase accuracy and precision in forensic entomology and biology disciplines, with a focus on genomic, transcriptomic and ecological studies.
Pigg is a paleobotanist who studies fossil plants that are related to modern groups of conifers, ferns and woody hardwood trees. Her group studies the origin of plants of the temperate deciduous biome.
Polidoro has a broad background in the marine, chemical and environmental sciences. Her research interests are in marine biodiversity conservation, risk assessment and applied toxicology.
Rittmann is director of the Biodesign Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology. He is an international leader in the use of microbial communities to provide services to society.
Sala is the Julie A. Wrigley and Regents' and Foundation Professor and the Founding Director of the Global Drylands Center at ASU.
Shock has appointments in the School of Molecular Sciences and School of Earth and Space Exploration and is director of the W. M. Keck Foundation Laboratory for Environmental Biogeochemistry at ASU.
Spielmann's research interests focus on prehistoric economies in smaller-scale societies, primarily in North America.
Studies the social epistemology of pluralism: what knowledge do we need to get things done together while differing in fundamental ways? Focuses on computational and data-intensive science, especially in biology.
Sulikowski's interests in aquatic environments along with his diverse background, which includes techniques in endocrinology and fisheries biology, continues to provide his students various research opportunities.
Suzart de Albuquerque is a conservation ecologist and a biogeographer.
Throop is an ecosystem scientist who studies how global-scale changes influence arid and semi-arid ecosystems. She is co-director of the Environmental Life Sciences PhD program.
Trembath-Reichert is a geobiologist studying microbial life in the deepest, darkest portions our planet to understand its limits, origins and extensibility beyond Earth.
Van der Leeuw was awarded the "Champion of the Earth for Science and Innovation" prize by the United Nations Environment Program in 2012. He joined ASU in 2003.
Varsani is a molecular virologist who works across ecosystems from plants to animals and from the tropics to polar regions.
Vermaas and his team conduct basic and applied research on cyanobacteria, a group of photosynthetic microbes, using these organisms as a chassis to produce useful compounds (biofuels, green chemicals) from sunlight and CO2.
Vivoni is a hydrologist who focuses on interactions with climate, ecosystems and landscapes in arid and semiarid regions.
Wang is an applied microbiologist, working at the interface between microbial genetics and metabolic engineering to develop new microbial production processes.
Weidner's focus is on improving the field of forensic entomology in Arizona and the Southwestern United States. She examines the distribution, biodiversity and life histories of forensically important blow flies.
Martin Wojciechowski is an evolutionary biologist who studies plants, with an emphasis on the genomics, biogeography, and phylogenetics of legumes (family Leguminosae) and cacti (family Cactaceae).
Wu is a Dean’s Distinguished Professor of Sustainability Science at Arizona State University. His research areas include: landscape ecology, urban ecology, and sustainability science.