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.
Spencer Steinberg
Spencer Steinberg, Ph.D., is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, where he teaches general, analytical and environmental chemistry courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Dr. Steinberg has over thirty years of experience in basic and applied research related to the environmental analytical chemistry of the atmosphere, soil and water. His research focuses on quantifying trace organic and inorganic compounds in complex matrices.
Dr. Steinberg’s recent research projects encompass a range of topics which include method development for determination of trace volatile organic compounds in soil and water, detection of silver nanoparticles in water, photochemical formation of oxidants in heterogeneous systems, characterization of natural organic matter in soil and water and the characterization of municipal solid waste. He has also developed ongoing collaborations with various colleges in material science and biology. His research has been funded by the NASA, the US EPA and The US-DOE.
Dr. Steinberg holds a Ph.D. in Marine Chemistry from the University of California, San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Jaeyun Moon
Jaeyun Moon is an Assistant Professor at the Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her area of expertise is advanced materials for energy applications.
Nanomaterials Design for Renewable Energy Technologies
-High Temperature Concentrating Solar Power(CSP)
-Highly efficient light absorbing coatings for high temperature CSP
Thermoelectrics
-Fabrication and evaluation of thermoelectrics nanocomposites
Hybrid Materials
-Additively manufactured thermoelectric devices
-3D printable functional materials
Materials for Water Treatment
-Solar water distillation
-Nanomaterials for water purification
Kwang Kim
Kwang Kim’s Laboratory, namely Active Materials and Smart Living (AMSL) Laboratory, provides an academic environment to UNLV students and researchers to learn and develop necessary engineering skills and attitudes that are needed to become great innovators throughout the course of their career. The laboratory is adequately setup to study engineering science in connection with Energy and Matter that has the broader economic-and-sociological impact on “sustainability and health engineering”. Kwang J. (Jin) Kim is NV Energy Professor of Energy and Matter at the Mechanical Engineering Department of University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).
Vic Etyemezian
Dr. Etyemezian currently holds the position of Research Professor in the Division of Atmospheric Sciences of the Desert Research Institute. He is active in several ongoing research projects including two DoD studies focusing on dust emissions and quantification from military activities, characterization of playa dust emissions from Mojave basins, measurement of emissions of particulate matter from fires in the Mojave and Great Basin Deserts as well as measurement of post-fire aeolian dust emission potential, continued development of a portable wind tunnel-like device for measuring aeolian sediment transport, and identifying controls on wind erosion on Steppe landscapes in Mongolia. Dr. Etyemezian’s research interests and specialties include direct measurement and quantification of atmospheric pollutant emissions, source apportionment, designing research instrumentation, and analysis of spatial data.
Yi-Tung Chen
Dr. Yi-Tung Chen is the Co-Director, Center for Energy Research at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Unmanned Aerial Systems Expertise: Computational fluid dynamics; Fluid-structure interaction; Smart wing design; Aircraft Maneuver; Aerodynamics; Biomimic Simulation
Gannet Hallar
Dr. Hallar is an Assistant Research Professor with the Desert Research Institute, she directs Storm Peak Laboratory, a high elevation atmospheric science facility in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. This laboratory has undergone major changes under her leadership including new instrumentation, new research foci, new field courses, and a significant building expansion. Currently, at Storm Peak Laboratory, Dr. Hallar also work as adjunct faculty for the University of Nevada, Reno and teaches a graduate level field course in Mountain Meteorology.
The overarching theme of Dr. Hallar’s research is using high quality measurements of trace gases, aerosol physical and chemical properties, and cloud microphysics to understand connections between the biosphere, atmosphere, and climate, along with the impact of anthropogenic emissions on these connections. More specifically, currently her research uses high elevation sites, combined with airborne measurements, to study the formation processes of Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) and Ice Nuclei (IN) and how differing formation processes impact mixed-phase cloud microphysics. This research topic is stemmed in many potential formation mechanisms of aerosols, including nucleation, secondary organic aerosols, and primary biological aerosol particles (PBAP’s).
Greg Pohll
Dr. Pohll’s major research interest is in numerical simulation of hydrologic systems. Evaluation of complex hydrologic systems requires tools from the traditionally fragmented fields of surface water hydrology, groundwater hydrogeology, and statistics. He is specifically interested in the development and application of numerical models that allow the end users to better understand the system and to make decisions within an uncertain environment. He uses state-of-the-art numerical tools to evaluate the all of the uncertainties inherent in the modeling environment so the end users understand how to quantify the worth of the modeling results in relation to the ramifications of the decision.
Joseph Grzyzmski
Dr. Grzymski is the Senior Director of the Applied Innovation Center and an Associate Research Professor of microbiology and computational biology. He holds adjunct positions in molecular biosciences and hydrology at the University of Nevada, Reno. He is co-founder of the companies Evozym Biologics, Inc and EMS Genomics, LLC. His academic research focuses on adaptations in microbes to extreme environments using methods from biophysics, molecular biology, informatics and microbiology. Joe received his BA in philosophy and biology from Bowdoin College. He was a Fulbright Scholar before attending Rutgers University where he received a Ph.D in Oceanography. In his spare time, Joe plays tennis, runs, cooks and enjoys spending time with his family. He has been at DRI and lived in Nevada for 12 years. He is passionate about improving Nevada’s economy through the promotion of DRI’s incredible science.
Kumud Acharya
Dr. Acharya’s research involves aquatic and biological stoichiometry, the study of balance of energy and multiple chemical elements. He is particularly interested in how human management of watersheds affects aquatic invertebrate community structure in aquatic environments. Aquatic invertebrates face special evolutionary challenges in these systems due to factors such as hydroperiod, flow or anthropogenic effects. My specific studies involve observational and experimental studies at various scales, including laboratory cultures (zooplankton, algal chemostats), short-term field experiments and sustained whole-ecosystem manipulations. His other research interests are nutrient cycling, wastewater treatment systems, groundwater management, and ecological modeling. Recently completed studies include role of zooplankton populations in large river (Ohio River) food webs, impact of changes in hydrological conditions (e.g., excessive rainfall or drought conditions) in riverine biota via changes in nutrient and food conditions.