Delaware Environmental Institute
Category: Students In Action
Rucha Wani, DENIN Environmental Scholar, Researching Carbon Storage in Permafrost
“I really want to go to grad school,” says UD sophomore Rucha Wani, “but I knew I needed undergraduate research experience to understand what doing research in a university looks like.” Wani applied for and was accepted as a DENIN Environmental Scholar
Read moreAlma Vázquez-Lule, Advocate for Coastal Wetlands
Alma Vázquez-Lule grew up in Mexico City with few parks. She got hooked on mangrove forests, a type of tropical coastal wetland, as soon as she saw one on a field trip in college. She continued to work on mangroves throughout her undergraduate years as
Read moreMatt Fischel, Measuring salt marsh metals (and creating new succulent plants)
His love of the environment began with his mom, says Matt Fischel. She was the head of education at the local Delaware Nature Society nature center until just recently. He played outside all the time, and she steered Matt toward environmental summer ca
Read moreDENIN Ambassadors Host Dialogue on UN Climate Change Report
In November 2018 the Delaware Environmental Institute Ambassadors hosted a panel discussion about the latest reports from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—Global Warming of 1.5℃. The Ambassadors are a group of environmental
Read moreMaggie Capooci, Champion of Tidal Salt Marshes
Maggie Capooci found her calling in the salt marshes of Georgia and Louisiana during an undergraduate field trip for an estuary ecology class at the University of Scranton. Her love was confirmed during a summer research fellowship at Woods Hole Oceano
Read moreMohammad Afsar, Tracking Carbon Chemistry in Wetland Soils
“If we know more about the interactions between soil minerals and organic matter, we can begin to answer so many other questions, like how are essential nutrients such as dissolved organic carbon, phosphorus, and nitrogen transported and cycled into th
Read moreAnders Kiledal, What Lives Inside Concrete?
I’d never before thought of concrete as a substance containing living organisms, but Anders Kiledal, a UD Ph.D. student and DENIN Environmental Fellow, tells me it does. He is analyzing the kinds and communities of bacteria in concrete. Repairing and r
Read moreDanhui Xin, Demystifying the Chemistry Behind Biochar
“Biochar is seeing wide use these days, but it’s viewed as almost a magic powder,” says Danhui Xin, DENIN Environmental Fellow and Ph.D. student. Her research aims to increase the scientific understanding behind why and how biochar works. Biochar is a
Read moreXiangmin Liang, Making Bioplastic from Microorganisms in Wastewater Sludge
Did you know that microbiologists and engineers have been working for several years to harvest plastics from bacteria in wastewater sludge? Now Xiangmin Liang, a UD Ph.D. student and DENIN Environmental Fellow, is trying to make the plastics stronger.
Read moreEric Moore, Grappling with Invasive Plants in Urban Forests
Eric Moore’s research asks what urban forests will look like in 2050 or 2100 if we do nothing about nonnative invasive plants. What if no trees sprout to replace current urban forests?
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