wright state university college of science and mathematics
Environmental Health and Sciences PhD Program
Participating Faculty and Departments

The Environmental Sciences Ph.D. Program is a cooperative effort between departments in the College of Science and Mathematics. Program faculty at Wright State reside in the Departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Physics, and Pharmacology & Toxicology.

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Michael Leffak, Molecular genetic analysis of proteins and DNA involved in chromosome replication


Biological Sciences Department

James P. Amon, wetland ecology and restoration, wetland microbial ecology, bioremediation, phytoremediation

Larry G. Arlian, medical entomology, physiology, immunoparasitology

Donald Cipollini, Jr., plant physiological ecology, molecular and chemical ecology

David L. Goldstein, comparative physiology of osmoregulation, physiological ecology, ornithology

Barbara Hull, evaluating environmental toxicants using an invitro skin model

Dan E. Krane, molecular and genome evolution, human population substructuring

Tom Rooney, Plant community ecology, ungulate impacts on forest ecosystems, biodiversity loss

James R. Runkle, plant ecology, general ecology

John Stireman, Insect ecology and evolutionary biology, ecology and evolutionary biology ecology, speciation phylo-genetics

Michele G. Wheatly, crustacean physiology, calcium transport

Yvonne Vadeboncoeur, aquatic ecology, ecosystem ecology


Chemistry Department

Roger K. Gilpin, analytical chemistry

Steven R. Higgins, environmental chemistry, surface-solute interactions, contaminant transport dynamics

Suzanne Lunsford, Chemistry, Development of chemical sensors to detect biological toxins of interest.

Audrey E. McGowin, analytical and environmental chemistry

Paul G. Seybold, physical and biophysicalchemistry

Kenneth Turnbull, Chemistry, Organic and bio-organic chemistry


Community Health

Richard Henderson, decompression sickness, cardiorespiratory resuscitation, breath chemistry


Earth and Environmental Sciences Department

Abinash Agrawal, contaminant hydrogeology, site remediation

Christopher Barton, analysis and forecasting of nonlinear natural systems using the mathematics of complexity

Huntting W. Brown, environmental management and law

G. Allen Burton, aquatic toxicology, ecological risk assessment

Songlin Cheng, hydrogeochemistry, isotope hydrology, geographic information systems

David Dominic, clastic sedimentology, stratigraphy

Bryan Gregor, modeling the sedimentary cycle

Chad R. Hammerschmidt, aquatic biogeochemistry, trace metal cycling and contamination

Ernest C. Hauser, near surface geophysics

Robert W. Ritzi Jr., hydrogeology, hydrogeological modeling

Doyle Watts, seismic data acquisition and processing, astrogeology, remote sensing


Mathematics & Statistics Department

Thaddeus Tarpey, Statistical issues with idenitfying placebo response, pet imaging


Pharmacology and Toxicology Department

David Cool, Hypothalamic-pituitary-pancreas peptide hormone synthesis, processing, storage, secretion and function in diseases

James N. McDougal, biologically-based pharmacokinetic modeling of chemical interactions with skin

Mariana Morris, cardiovascular and endocrine toxicology

Courtney Sulentic, immunotoxicology


Physics Department

Brent Foy, mathematical modeling of biological systems

Allen Hunt, environmental geophysics

Doug Petkie, spectroscopy, chemical physics, remote sensing

Sarah Tebbens, environmental geophysics


Computer Science Department

Mike Raymer, Bioinformatics, proteomics, genomics, and computational biology


Urban Affairs

Daniel Johnson, Medical geography urban heat events analyzed via remote sensing and GIS