Research Groups

Under the direction of Pedro Alvarez, the Alvarez Lab integrates expertise in environmental biotechnology, microbiology and nanotechnology to conduct multidisciplinary and globally-relevant research on water treatment and reuse, bioremediation of contaminated aquifers, fate and transport of toxic chemicals, antibiotic resistance propagation and control, water footprint of biofuels, microbial-plant interactions, and environmental implications of nanotechnology.

Phil Bedient's research group focuses on a wide-array of engineering and hydrology issues pertinent to the Gulf Coast region. As the director of the SSPEED Center, his group has developed storm surge protection strategies for Houston and Galveston, as well as strategies to mitigate Houston’s flooding issues in the wake of Hurricane Harvey’s record-breaking rain event. This research not only covers flood mitigation, but also GIS and radar-based flood alert systems, water quality strategies and hydrologic modeling of complex watersheds.

The Cohan Research Group specializes in the development and application of photochemical models to investigate atmospheric processes and inform air quality management. The group led by Daniel Cohan is especially interested in how energy use impacts the atmosphere, and how air pollution, in turn, impacts human health.

The Doss-Gollin Lab integrates Earth science, data science, and decision analysis to address fundamental challenges in infrastructure resilience and climate adaptation. Current research addresses two primary questions. First, how do hydroclimate extremes affect infrastructure systems and their users? Second, how can we understand the likelihood of these hazards, and the associated uncertainty, in a changing climate. Through community engagement and transdisciplinary collaborations, we seek to support the design of sustainable, resilient, and equitable infrastructure systems.

Leonardo Dueñas-Osorio's Research Group focuses on computational and theoretical models for structure and infrastructure system reliability, resilience and risk assessment in the context of natural hazards, deterioration, and complex operation. His team collaborates with statisticians, applied mathematicians, electrical engineers, computer scientists and political scientists to address fundamental infrastructure problems of practical importance.

The Getachew Research Group focuses on studying novel and responsive materials to improve the performance of water treatment technologies and enable a more resilient water infrastructure. We combine fabrication and characterization of novel materials with bench-scale studies. Our goal is to gain mechanistic understanding of the materials’ performance and use this fundamental insight to inform the development of better environmental technologies.

The Gong Research Group at Rice University lies at the intersection of materials science, civil engineering, environmental sustainability, and data science. The main goal of our research is to help decarbonize our buildings, cities, and infrastructure by focusing on critical and challenging materials science problems related to industrial decarbonization, waste encapsulation, waste-to-resources, sustainable and durable infrastructure materials, etc. To achieve this goal, we combine (i) atomistic simulations and (ii) advanced materials characterization with (iii) data-driven modeling. 

The Natural Hazards Mitigation Research Group's research — led by Reggie DesRoches — focuses on seismic resistant design and retrofit and of lifeline systems; multi-scale assessment and applications of smart and auto-adaptive materials, namely shape memory alloys, in seismic design and retrofit of buildings and bridges; and system-level design of smart and resilient cities.

The Novelino Research group combines art and engineering by using principles of Origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. We see origami as not just an art form, but as a tool to create structures with shape-changing capabilities and materials with adaptable and unique mechanical properties. Our research focuses on modeling, manufacturing (including 3D printing), actuation, and testing of origami-inspired systems.

The Padgett Research Group’s research focuses on the application of probabilistic methods for risk assessment of infrastructure, including the subsequent quantification of resilience and sustainability. Jamie Padgett's work emphasizes structural portfolios such as regional portfolios of bridges or oil storage tanks exposed to multiple hazards, including earthquakes, hurricanes, or aging and deterioration.

The Qilin Li Research Group's research focuses on the behaviors of environmental colloids and macromolecules at aqueous-solid interfaces and the subsequent impact on their fate and transport in natural and engineered systems. By studying natural water quality and advanced water and wastewater treatment technologies, this group is devoted to finding a way to a sustainable water supply.

The Satish Nagarajaiah Group focuses on research in the broad area of structural dynamic systems, earthquake engineering, advanced seismic protection, smart structures, adaptive stiffness structures, sparse structural system identification, and strain sensing using applied nanotechnology. Our goal is innovation and creative research. Our work includes theoretical, analytical and experimental studies.

Pol Spanos's research efforts focus on the dynamics and vibrations of structural and mechanical systems under a variety of loads. Systems exhibiting nonlinear behavior and/or exposed to hazard/risk inducing conditions receive particular attention. His group is also interested in mechanical properties and fatigue/fracture issues of modern materials, and in signal processing algorithms for dynamic effects in biomedical applications.

Led by Lauren Stadler, the Stadler Research Group focuses on advancing resource recovery from wastewater. We combine microbial ecology, environmental chemistry, and sustainability assessment to study used water treatment processes, resource recovery, and their impact on the environment and human health.

The lab of Mason Tomson focuses on the areas of fate and transport of organic chemicals and heavy metals in sediments and groundwater, environmental impacts of nano-particles; inhibition of mineral scale formation. The group's research impacts domestic and international oil and gas production and environmental policy through our research conducted via the Brine Chemistry Consortium and the China-U.S. Center for Environmental Remediation and Sustainable Development.