Hanif Livani is Assistant Professor at the University of Nevada, Reno with affiliation in the Department of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering specializing in power system engineering. He received the BS and the MS degree in electrical engineering, both from the University of Mazandaran, Iran and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Virginia Polytechnic and State university (Virginia Tech). He joined the faculty of the University of Nevada, Reno in Fall 2014.
Thomas Harris
Dr. Thomas Harris is a Foundation Professor in the Department of Economics in the College of Business, has a research appointment in Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station in the College Agriculture, Biotechnology, and Natural Resources; State Extension Specialists in Community and Economic Development in the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension; and the Director of the University Center for Economic Development at the University of Nevada, Reno. Dr. Harris has been at UNR since 1981 and his primary areas of teaching, research and extension are rural economic development, economic impact modeling, and local government finance. Dr. Harris’ research covers the economic and fiscal impacts of changes in public land grazing policies and surface water reallocations. Tom was co-editor of a published book titled Targeted Regional Economic Development, and, recently, worked on the Stronger Economies Together Project covering the Western Nevada Development District. Also Dr. Harris is a Fellow with the Western Rural Development Center.
Henry Sun
Henry Sun is an Assistant Research Professor Microbiology, Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences at the Desert Research Institute, Las Vegas campus. His research areas of interest and expertise is life in extreme environments; endolithic microorganisms in the Antarctic dry valleys, the Atacama Desert, and Death Valley; mineral formations in microbial environments; biological rock weathering, iron isotopic fractionation, and survival and adaptation in endolithic communities; new approaches to planetary life detection; and microbiology of compost tea making and its use as an alternative to fungicide in agriculture and viticulture.
Mary Cablk
Dr. Mary E. Cablk is an Emeritus Faculty at DRI. She is an expert in detection and systems. In her research she draws upon knowledge from multiple fields such as olfaction, analytical chemistry, learning, cognitive and industrial/occupational psychology, forensics, spatial analysis, pattern analysis, and image processing. Her interests focus on transforming qualitative observation into quantitative data and combining multiple input data types to solve complex challenges related to detection, in a field setting. Her research and expertise has taken her around the world where she has addressed audiences and worked with colleagues on landmine detection, wildlife detection, recovery of human remains, and search and rescue, among others. She works closely with relevant agencies and organizations on development and implementation of credentialing and standards for canine teams in a variety of disciplines. Dr. Cablk has been instrumental in developing a Ph.D. program in forensic anthropology at the University of Nevada Reno, where she is an adjunct professor and mentors graduate students. She is an auxiliary deputy with several county Sheriff Offices in the State of Nevada and is a resource to the State of California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
Expert in remote sensing including olfaction and optical. Uses quantitative methods from multiple input data types to conduct scientific analyses related to detection, including spatial analyses.
Haroon Stephen
Dr. Stephen has diverse research experience in the areas of Remote Sensing, GIS, and GPS applications. His Ph.D. research involved the modeling of microwave scattering and emission behavior of electromagnetic waves over Saharan sand surfaces and Amazon vegetation. His ongoing research interests include applications of remote sensing and GIS technologies to water resource mapping; drought study; and climate change study. Presently, he is involved in several Federal and State sponsored research projects involving geospatial data research and applications. I am also developing a geovisualization facility at UNLV that will provide state-of-the-art visualization for the research and educational needs of UNLV and the region.
His research involves development of Remote Sensing and GIS technologies and their application to Natural Resource Mapping. This includes modeling of microwave remote sensing measurements of backscatter and radiometric temperature to understand spatial and temporal interconnections of geomorphology, vegetation, hydrology, ecology, and water resources.
Sage Hiibel
Dr. Hiibel received his B.S. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2003 and 2004, respectively, and his Ph.D. in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Colorado State University in 2008. After a short post doc at Texas A&M in 2008-2009, he returned to UNR and was a post doc in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department from 2009 – 2012 before joining the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department as a Research Assistant Professor. Funding for his research has come from the EPA, DOD, DOE, and NSF. Dr. Hiibel’s research interests include renewable and sustainable energy systems, membrane separations in environmental applications, and novel membrane bioreactor systems.
M Sami Fadali
M. Sami Fadali earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from Cairo University in 1974, an MS from the Control Systems Center, UMIST, England, in 1977 and a Ph. D. from the University of Wyoming in 1980. He was an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of King Abdul Aziz in Jeddah , Saudi Arabia 1981-1983. From 1983-85, he was a Post Doctoral Fellow at Colorado State University. In 1985, he joined the Electrical Engineering Dept. at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he is currently Professor of Electrical Engineering. In 1994 he was a visiting professor at Oakland University and GM Research and Development Labs. He spent the summer of 2000 as a Senior Engineer at TRW, San Bernardino. His research interests are in the areas of fuzzy logic stability and control, state estimation and fault detection, and applications to power systems, renewable energy, and physiological systems.
Mehdi Etezadi-Amoli
Mehdi Etezadi-Amoli is a professor of electrical and biomedical engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno. Dr. Etezadi worked as an assistant professor of Electrical Engineering at New Mexico State and the University of New Mexico during 1975-1979. From 1979-1983 he worked as a Senior Protection Engineer at Arizona Public Service Company in Phoenix, Arizona. He worked at NV Energy (formerly Sierra Pacific Power Company) during summers 1985-1998. In 1983 he joined the faculty of the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Nevada, Reno where he is responsible for the power system program. Dr. Etezadi served as the chairman of the Electrical and Biomedical Engineering Department during 2010-2015.
He is the author/coauthor of more than 100 technical papers dealing with power systems planning, distribution, protection, transient analysis, and renewable energy.
Yahia Baghzouz
Dr. Baghzouz is the Co-Director, Center for Energy Research in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Dr. Baghzouz’s area of interest is in electrical power systems. His field of expertise within this branch of electrical engineering focuses on electric power quality and renewable resources. He worked on related projects sponsored by Louisiana Power and Light, Gulf-States Utilities, Western Area Power Administration, Cray Research Inc., Nevada Power Co. and Loudon Engineering Co. He served as Conference Chairman for the IEEE 7th Int. Conference on Harmonics and Quality of Power held in 1996 in Las Vegas, NV. He presently co-chairs the executive committee of IEEE- ICHQP. Dr. Baghzouz authored/co-authored over 100 articles on power quality, machine modeling and distributed generation. He teaches courses in power system engineering, power electronics, and circuits at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Jacimaria Batista
Dr. Jacimária Batista is a professor of environmental engineering at UNLV. Her research involves technology development for water and wastewater treatment. She has built an international and national reputation for her pioneering work on treatment technologies to remove the contaminant perchlorate from waters. Dr. Batista is the inventor of a hybrid technology for perchlorate removal (U.S. patent #7407581). In addition to her work on perchlorate, Dr. Batista investigated the removal of several contaminants by ion-exchange, the treatment of ion-exchange brines, and biological phosphorus removal. Dr. Batista’s research is collaborative and multidisciplinary and has attracted funding from industry, federal, state, and local agencies, including U.S. EPA, AWWARF, NSF, NDEP, Clark County Reclamation District, Clark County Health Department, Clark County Flood Control District, Las Vegas Valley Water District, and water utilities in California, Arizona, and Nevada. Her research has been disseminated broadly. Dr. Batista is an accomplished and student-focused instructor; She is the recipient of various teaching awards. Her teaching evaluations are consistent with the highest standards of her department and college. Students praise her enthusiastic teaching style, high academic expectations, quality of the courses, and approachability. She teaches senior level and graduate level courses on water and wastewater treatment and solids and hazardous waste engineering. Dr. Batista works closely with her Ph.D., Masters, and undergraduate students motivating them to excel at all levels. Dr. Batista has served her profession, university, college and department extensively. She is a resourceful problem-solver and an active member of the department in matters of curriculum and academic priorities. She is a sought-after environmental engineering consultant to the water industry of California, Nevada, and Arizona.