Barnes, Rebecca—Environmental Program
Rebecca’s research examines how anthropogenic disturbance and ecosystem variability impacts the biogeochemistry of nitrogen and carbon. Her work utilizes concepts and methods from the fields of geochemistry and ecosystem science to understand how terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems process nutrients and carbon. Currently, she is working in the montane forests near Colorado Springs to investigate the effects of fire on forest carbon stock recovery and resilience. In addition, she is examining the role of tides in the processing of nitrogen and organic matter dynamics in the Mid-Atlantic. 

Bruder, Andrea—Mathematics and Computer Science
Andrea’s research interests are in the theory of differential equations and their applications in mathematical biology. Most recently, she has worked with David Brown in the math department and Miro Kummel in the environmental program on modeling an insect predator-prey system. Their field system consists of ladybugs and aphids, which are patchily distributed on racemes of yucca plants in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. The patches are connected by the relatively fast dispersal of the ladybugs, whereas the aphids are relatively sessile. In a 30-day field study they observed a split of the aphid population sizes into extremely large and extremely small populations, a phenomenon known as spatial self-organization or pattern formation. In order to study the effects of density independent predator and prey immigration into the system and migration due to the predator's attraction to predation, work in progress includes the study of a two-patch, ordinary differential equations model, which is continuous in time and discrete in space (with David Brown, Miro Kummel, and Hannah Thompson).

Chan, Emily–Psychology
Emily is a social psychologist with broad interest in social cognition. She is interested in topics relating to how people perceive other social entities (branding of corporations in terms of warmth and competence), the expression of prejudices and discrimination, stereotype threat and interventions, and the cultural analysis of religious cognitions.
Coggins, Elizabeth—Political Science
Elizabeth’s scholarly interests in political science include ideological identification, public opinion, and political psychology. Her current research centers on the individual-level foundations of ideological identifications, including psychological derivations and environmental factors—and the moral and political presentation of those factors—in shaping ideological attachments. 

Daly, Helen—Philosophy
Helen is a metaphysician and philosopher of language in the Anglo-American (analytic) tradition. She works on fundamental philosophical research, applied to important issues of our day. For example, she has published work on the application of philosophical theories of vagueness to the practical problem of categorization by sex and gender. The fundamental question there is how to reason logically, using vague categories, but the problem has special urgency in its application to sex and gender. Categorization by sex and/or gender is particularly fraught and so demands particular care; Helen’s approach to the logic of vague categories provides a sensible path forward. She has also recently been engaged in the question of whether eternal damnation is consistent with other tenets of Christianity--an especially important application of metaphysics for many people. Helen’s newest research project is to develop an account of insults that explains how they function as part of human communication, broadly construed. It is a practical application of her novel approach to the study of pragmatics, grounded in Paul Grice’s conversational implicatures. Her hope is that a deeper understanding of insults will lead to better communication and thereby a more civil society.

Davis-Green, Marie—Theatre and Dance
Marie’s performance installation designs were chosen for inclusion to the 2015 International Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space.   Her work was also chosen for exhibition for the World Stage Design 2014 Biennial in Cardiff, Wales. She created set designs for “Angels in America” and “The Dutchman” at CC this year.  Marie is currently working with environmental and design students on local community renovation projects that include the Pikes Peak Summit House, the Bon/Weber corridor and the Ivywild Greenhouse, in collaboration with local entrepreneurs, community and business partners.  She will continue work on these projects along with eco-conscious performance installations while on sabbatical this coming year.

Driscoll, Lori–Psychology
Lori’s research explores the complex interrelationships between nutrition, toxicology, and neurobehavioral development. Using rodents as a model for human neural functioning, she manipulates dietary factors, exposure to environmental toxins, and gut-brain communication in the early postnatal period and measures their impact on brain development and complex motivational and cognitive processes in adulthood. Her current projects include determining the influence of direct communication between commensal gut bacteria and the brain in shaping the development of anxiety, depression, and executive functioning.

Drossman, Howard–Education
Trained as a bioanalytical chemist, Howard’s current research focuses on biogeochemistry, environmental chemistry and environmental education. He is co-founder of the Catamount Institute and Catamount Center, two nonprofit environmental organizations that provide programs  enhancing ecological stewardship through research and education. His major current focus is studying  how conceptions of ecological stewardship develop through education and experience. Howard is currently developing a Semester in Environmental Education Program, a residential study-off campus program, where undergraduate students learn about themselves as teachers and learners through extended teaching partnerships with local K-12 schools.  Since 2005, Howard has been working with the NSF-funded Center for Multi-scale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes (CMMAP) at Colorado State University, where our partnership seeks to improve undergraduate Earth Systems Science education through new interdisciplinary classes and mentor graduate student Fellows in how to teach such classes. Howard also serves as Board President of the Catamount Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to transdisciplinary education and research on ecological and geographical issues in the southwest.

Ebersole, Jim–Organismal Biology and Ecology
Jim does research with students to learn how to restore Colorado alpine vegetation damaged by recreationists. He has published with student co-authors several journal articles in an international journal, presented at the Society for Ecological Restoration meeting, and contributed to a chapter in an edited volume. His work is well described by the title of a recent presentation: “Alpine vegetation restoration of social trails on Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks.”

Eli Fahrenkurg – Chemistry 
The general scope of his research centers on developing new platforms by which the practice and interpretation of chemical diagnostics can be made broadly accessible to all people. His pedagogical interests focus on the creation of contemporary case studies as vehicles for conveying analytical chemistry concepts through the mediums of environmental justice, power, and equity.

Fenn, Aju–Economics and Business
Aju is an applied micro-econometrician. He researches topics in the economics of sports, the economics of addiction, environmental economics and the pedagogical aspects of teaching and doing research with undergraduates in Economics. His work in sports economics examines the determinants of competitive balance, the willingness to pay for a new stadium, the demand for NFL games, market power in the NFL, and the impact of race on sporting issues.  Aju has published papers on the NFL, the NBA, the NHL and MLB.  He has also examined the impact of addiction information on the demand for cigarettes and the dollar value of concealing addiction information to cigarette firms. In addition to his own research, Aju works collaboratively with students on their research and has published papers with CC students. Past student projects include the demand for NFL games, a model of profit maximization in the NFL and the impact of free agency on competitive balance in the NFL. Aju has also written chapters for Springer, Sage and Oxford that introduce the general economist to the NFL, the field of Sports Economics and the evolution of football leagues. His research has been featured in the Wall Street Journal. Aju's pedadgogical research examines the determinants of teaching evaluations, strategies to create valuable undergraduate research assistants and strategies to publish with student co-authors.  He has published in journals such as The Southern Economic Journal, The Journal of Economic Education, Economics Letters, Applied Economics, The Journal of Sports Economics and the International Journal of Sport Finance. 

Fish, Krista—Anthropology
Krista is a biological anthropologist who studies primate ecology and evolution. Her past research in Central America and Madagascar investigated the influence of habitat disturbance on primate biology and behavior. Currently, Krista is collaborating with US, South African, and Malagasy researchers on a project exploring the evolution of primate body size and activity pattern. With fieldsites in southern Madagascar and northern South Africa, the project will focus on clarifying the relationship between body size, predator pressure, and foraging behaviors in nocturnal primates.

Fricke, Henry–Geology
Henry is a stable isotope geochemist who is currently working with students on a wide range of research topics. These include: the nature of terrestrial climate during greenhouse periods of the past; reconstructing ecological relations between herbivorous dinosaurs, plants, and carnivorous dinosaurs of ancient North America and Madagascar; determining dietary preferences and migrational patterns of extinct animals such as dinosaurs and early mammals; estimating the elevation of western North American landscapes in the past; and constraining the provenance of humans remains and how movement of prehistoric human groups is related to other archaeological information.
							
Gratz, Lynne—Environmental Program
Lynne's scholarly interests include air quality, atmospheric chemistry and transport. The objective of her work is to understand the spatiotemporal impacts of air pollutants on communities and sensitive ecosystems. She is currently studying the emissions of mercury to the atmosphere from industrial point sources and major urban/industrial areas. She also studies the chemical transformations of speciated mercury in the free troposphere. 

Gray, Emilie—Organismal Biology and Ecology
Emilie is an evolutionary physiologist investigating how insects and other arthropods adapt to ever changing environments. She’s particularly interested in mosquitoes, as their ability to respond to stresses such as climate change and insecticide use will determine the distribution of diseases they transmit. In this context, she has been involved in research examining physiological adaptation in vectors of Malaria, Dengue, Zika and West Nile. As a resident of the arid west, she is also keen to understand eco-physiological responses to climate change in a variety of local species ranging from scorpions to mountain pine beetles.

Grover, Neena–Chemistry and Biochemistry
Neena is a nucleic acid biochemist who investigates the rules for the formation of RNA structures through thermodynamic analyses. She and her research students study small RNA that form unique structures or have interesting physiological properties, such as a small RNA derived from AIDS-causing HIV-1 virus called the TAR RNA. Her research interests include developing new pedagogical methods for teaching science. She has developed methods to use discussions in science courses along with using Research-Based and Service Learning approaches. She is especially interested in developing meaningful science outreach activities for her students.

Heschel, Shane–Organismal Biology and Ecology
Shane is a plant physiologist who examines how plants adapt to stressful environments. His projects include examining how water-use efficiency evolves in plant populations, how leaf-level gas exchange and germination physiology dictate species’ range limits, and the importance of water-use physiology to plants of the Southwest.

Hoel, Jessica—Economics and Business
Jessica works at the intersection of international development and behavioral economics. One previous project examined cooperation between spouses in Kenya, while another studied the effect of cognitive taxation on patience in Ethiopian university students. She is currently working with maize farmers in Uganda to study how ambiguity aversion affects the decision to use herbicide that may have been counterfeited, and households in Senegal to look at how cooperation between spouses affects productivity in dairy farming.

Horner, John–Psychology
John is interested in how humans and animals learn about their environment. In the past, his research has involved human memory for common objects, animal choice/decision rules, the allocation of behavior, spatial memory, and the evolution of behavioral plasticity. On the philosophical end, he is interested in how science, as a collective endeavor, comes to understand the world.

Hourdequin, Marion–Philosophy
Marion’s research focuses on ethics, environmental ethics, and comparative philosophy (Chinese and Western). She also has interests in the philosophy of biology and philosophy of science.  Her recent projects have explored the social and ethical dimensions of ecological restoration; the ethics of global climate change and climate engineering; and the philosophical implications of the proposed new geological epoch known as the Anthropocene.  Marion is the author of Environmental Ethics: From Theory to Practice (Bloomsbury, 2015) and editor, with David Havlick, of Restoring Layered Landscapes: History, Ecology, and Culture (Oxford, 2015). 

Janke, Steven–Mathematics and Computer Science
Steven’s current interests include modeling complex systems in environmental science, developing mathematical techniques in computer graphics, and using Bayesian approaches in statistics and machine learning.

Johnson, Dan–Economics and Business
Dan studies the economics of innovation and technological change, but his liberal arts curiosity causes him to pursue other research interests as well. Recent published work includes an edited volume on agricultural productivity and peer-reviewed articles on the importance of physical location and social networks for innovators, the impact of pharmaceutical patents on health care costs, patterns in philanthropic giving to higher education, the explanation of adoption patterns for new voting equipment after the 2000 federal elections, the optimization of microloans by Grameen in the Philippines, and the long-term retention of Economics principles by undergraduate students. Forthcoming work studies the effects of patent law on productivity growth, the impact of big-box stores on residential property values, the relationship between trade and innovation, and how energy prices affect innovation in natural resource extraction sectors. He is still predicting Olympic medal counts with surprising accuracy. 

Kohout, Amy—History
Amy is a cultural and environmental historian. Her research interests include the American West, the history of natural history, American empire, museum studies, world’s fairs, and the history of science and technology. Her current book project, based on her 2015 dissertation, explores the intersection of ideas about nature and empire through the experiences of American soldiers in the American West and the Philippines in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. She is also working on an article focused on curators, collectors, and loss for a special issue of Museum History. Amy is a founding editor of Backlist, an ongoing digital public project where historians recommend the books they love. Her work has appeared in Rethinking History, The Appendix, and A Companion to the History of American Science, and she has collaborated on a public history project with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s Division of Birds. 

Kummel, Miro--Environmental Program
Miro is an ecologist interested in spatial population dynamics, climate change, agroecology, and soil ecology. His current projects involve 1) measuring the response of trees at alpine tree-line to climate change on the western side of Pikes Peak, and 2) bridging empirical observation of spatial metapopulation dynamics of Yucca aphids and coccinelid beetles with mathematical theory. His most recent publication, "How the aphids got their spots: Predation drives self-organization of aphid populations in a patchy habitat," is in the journal Oikos.

Leonard, Eric–Geology
Eric’s primary interests are glaciation and climate change, and the roles of tectonics and climate in the long-term evolution of landscape. Current projects include paleoglaciology and paleoclimate of the U.S. Rocky Mountains, topographic evolution of the Colorado mountains and piedmont, and the tectonic geomorophology of Chile. Other areas of research include glacial lake sedimentation, active rock-glacier flow, and development of GIS-based spatial analysis methods for use in both classes and research.

Linkhart, Brian–Organismal Biology and Ecology
Brian is an avian ecologist concentrating on the population dynamics and habitat selection of raptors, particularly small forest owls. In the past few years, he has presented several papers at national meetings coauthored with students, including “Climate Correlates of Breeding Phenology and Reproductive Performance in Flammulated Owls ”, “Habitat Selection by Breeding Flammulated Owls in a Post-fire Environment”, “Nest Habitat Characteristics of Flammulated Owls in Colorado”, “Selection of Songpost Trees by Flammulated Owls”, and “Migratory Movements and Stopover Habitats of Flammulated Owls”.  He is currently conducting studies in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Partners in Flight to determine the long-term impacts of the Hayman fire, the effects of prescribed fire and forest thinning, and the effects of climate change on breeding populations of Flammulated Owls.

McKendry, Corina—Political Science
Corina’s research focuses on legitimacy, effectiveness, and equity in city environmental governance. With a focus on postindustrial cities in the Global North, she is particularly interested in how city leaders negotiate the tensions between environmental protection, economic growth, and social justice, the oft-cited “three pillars” of sustainability. In particular, her work investigates the ways that local politics, national legal context, and the globalized economy intersect in cities in ways that force leaders to negotiate trade-offs – or seek to find common ground – among these three goals. Corina's book, Greening Post-Industrial Cities: Growth, Equity, and Environmental Governance, is forthcoming in 2017 from Routledge Press. Her work has been published in the journals International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law, and Economics and Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability as chapters in the books The Power of Cities in International Relations, The Economy of Green Cities: World Compendium on the Green Urban Economy, and The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society.

Miller-Stevens, Katrina—Economics and Business
Katrina’s research interests include social entrepreneurship, nonprofit organizations, and collaboration. In the area of social entrepreneurship, she researches the similarities and differences between benefit corporations and nonprofit organizations. She is working on a study that explores the individual motivations and values of the founders of the two types of organizations. In the realm of nonprofit organizations, she examines the impacts of government regulations, such as the Internal Revenue Service’s 501(h) election and the Sarbanes Oxley Act, on nonprofit lobbying expenditures and governance practices.  In the area of collaboration, she explores new models and frameworks that explain how the business, nonprofit, and public sectors work together to solve social and environmental problems including sharing of knowledge and resources, leadership and governance issues, and size and scope of collaborations.
 
Montaño, Mario–Anthropology
Mario continued working on an edited volume on the role of farming and water issues in the southwest. He is also putting the finishing touches on a book manuscript on food along the Texas-Mexican border.

Myrow, Paul–Geology
Paul works with students and international colleagues on a variety of projects in sedimentary geology and Earth history. He has an active National Science Foundation (NSF) grant with a colleague at MIT for the experimental study of the underlying dynamics that govern how wave ripples in sand form and change geometry. He also has a NASA grant for the study of fossils of the oldest multicellular organisms. Paul works on Paleozoic rocks in localities across the Himalayas and Southeast Asia. He has many other active projects from Antarctica to the western US. Recent work has resulted in a number of journal articles co-authored with CC students.

Noblett, Jeff–Geology
Jeff is a petrologist who focuses on Tertiary volcanic rocks in Central Colorado. His recent work includes projects on the origin of the basalt flows in Salida, examination of the links between mineral composition and chemical exchange during magma-mingling processes, and a geophysical project at Shiprock, NM using gravity and magnetics to image the subsurface structure of this volcanic diatreme. He developed this project to encourage collaborative research between CC and Navajo students.

Perramond, Eric–Southwest Studies
Eric is an environmental geographer and political ecologist who focuses on the Greater Southwest, Mediterranean Europe, and comparative environmental histories. Eric's approaches to research can be found in his latest co-authored book "An Introduction to Human-Environment Geography" (2013, WILEY-Blackwell). His latest project focuses on water adjudications and management in the state of New Mexico, which is now taking shape as his next book “Unruly Waters.” Additionally, he pursues work on protected areas governance in the Pyrenees, and human-environment dynamics as related to global change.

Roberts, Wade – Sociology 
Research focuses on the social determinants of health and the spatial analysis of social issues. Explores racial and class disparities in blood lead levels in young children. Elevated lead levels have been linked to both cognitive and emotional outcomes in children, as well as related social outcomes throughout the life course, such as educational attainment. This research highlights the role of social factors in shaping health outcomes that ultimately inform long-standing questions about the mechanisms and processes behind the social reproduction of inequality across generations. A second body of research uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to map the distribution of community hazards, resources, and events to better inform our understanding of the spatial dimensions of inequality and poverty. 

Siddoway, Christine–Geology
Christine is a structural geologist who carries out field-based research in the Rocky Mountains and in West Antarctica. Recent work in Colorado and Wyoming related to the development of Laramide Mountains, through faulting and deformation. Previous work focused on the growth of the continent, through magmatism, tectonic accretion, and plutonism, in Precambrian time. In Antarctica, Christine has eleven seasons’ experience carrying out geological research supported by vessel in coastal regions and out of self-supported camps in remote on-continent locations. In addition to her own National Science Foundation-funded research, she has participated in Italian and German expeditions, for work in locales along the entire Pacific margin of Antarctica. The Antarctic research has been complemented by work in New Zealand, on rocks that correlate to West Antarctica. Presently she is involving CC students with Antarctic research through a “virtual geology” approach to mapping of the structures of West Antarctica using GIS and high resolution satellite imagery. Since field access is so restricted, this allows many more students to “travel” to Antarctica via computer, using facilities in the W.H. Keck GIS Commons at CC!  Coming up in 2017-18, Christine has been invited to participate in the ANDRILL-Coulman High drilling project that will recover sediment records from a bathymetric high in the Ross Sea.
 
Smith, Mark–Economics and Business
Mark has recently published, "Price Determination and Efficiency in the Market for South Platte Basin Ditch Company Shares," with Matt Payne '09 in the Journal of the Americans
 Water Resources Association.  Their paper which develops the first price index for western water rights is under review with the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.  He continues to work with Alison Levin’14 on, “The Ultra-Orthodox Haredim as a Club Good.”  In the summer of 2015 he initiated a new research project on the effect of salience on motivating voter behavior on greenhouse gas reduction.

Wilson, Mark–Organismal Biology and Ecology
Mark studies evolutionary relationships among orchids of the group Pleurothallidinae, particularly the genus Pleurothallis. These orchids occur as epiphytes in high elevation cloud forests from southern Mexico, through Central America, into the Andean countries of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. Through field work and collaborations with individuals and botanic gardens in each of these locations, Mark is collecting living plants or samples of the described species in the genus Pleurothallis in order to generate a molecular phylogeny representing possible evolutionary relationships in the genus. Molecular phylogenies such as this are developed through comparison of sequences in the nuclear or chloroplast genomes. This phylogeny will provide the basis for determining whether segregate, monophyletic genera can be created from species within the huge, highly diverse genus Pleurothallis. The research will also lead to the development of a database of DNA sequences unique to each Pleurothallis species, a so-called “DNA barcode,” such that in the future, identifications can be made even by untrained taxonomists, from a small sample of any plant in the genus, just by sequencing the appropriate DNA regions and comparison to the database. In addition to rapid identification, the barcoding can indicate that a species is not in the database and probably is undescribed, a “new” species. Mark has already collected several undescribed species, which will be described and named in the future.