Sarah Roney is a Ph.D. candidate in the Ocean Science and Engineering program in the School of Biological Sciences. She studies the chemical communication pathways of marine organisms. Her current project is to investigate reducing the predation of oysters in engineered “living shoreline” systems where they are being established to mitigate waterway erosion due to maritime activities, such as those near the port of Savannah, Georgia.

Sarah makes outreach a priority in her work by developing strong connections with researchers and institutions outside of her program, by incorporating “citizen science” approaches to her research, by mentoring younger students, as well as by engaging with media about her work.

Sarah earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Georgia Southern University, where she graduated, Summa Cum Laude.

Advisor: Marc Weissburg

Spenser Wipperfurth is a Ph.D. student in the Ocean Science and Engineering program, an interdisciplinary program organized by the Schools of Biology, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Simultaneously, she is pursuing her MBA from the Scheller College of Business. Spenser's research focuses on increasing coastal resiliency by quantifying and understanding the response of natural resources, namely coastal salt marshes, to compound-extreme events by developing large-scale models of target coastlines and ocean systems. Projects based on this research target the development of models and the presentation of results in formats that are most useful and helpful to the stakeholders who live and work in coastal areas. Spenser is very active in the Georgia Tech community, holding executive and leadership positions in the Graduate Student Government (VP of Academic and Research Affairs, 2022-2024), College of Science (2022-2023), Net Impact (VP of Outreach), Peer Leadership (GT6000 Leader, Committee 2023-Present), and sits on various committees and task forces for the campus-wide Climate Action Plan and Climate Conference. 

Spenser holds a BS in Civil Engineering and Spanish Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She returned to academia after her service in the Peace Corps in Peru, and work in water resources engineering in Minnesota, her home state. When not studying, Spenser can be found outside on a run, on her bike, in a lake, and with her friends. She loves Peruvian food and root beer.

Advisor: Kevin Haas

Dr. Jian Luo completed his undergraduate and M.S. studies at Tsinghua University, Beijing, where he received a B.Sc.(Eng.) and a M.S. degree in Environmental Engineering in 1998 and 2000, respectively. He completed his Ph.D. in 2006 in Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University, California. The research Dr. Luo is conducting involves field, theoretical, and computational investigations of flow and reactive transport in subsurface; development and application of geostatistical methods for the spatial and temporal analysis of hydrogeologic and biochemistry data; development of computational algorithms and programs to simulate subsurface flow and reactive transport, and to assess the associated uncertainty; inverse modeling to estimate flow and transport parameters under uncertainty; and use of such computational methods and models to assess subsurface contamination, and to aid the optimal design of groundwater remediation operations.

Dr. Graham joined Georgia Tech as an Assistant Professor in January 2023. She completed a President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at Georgia Tech, and completed her MS and PhD in Environmental Engineering and Science at Stanford University. Prior to that, she received her undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan in Chemical Engineering.

Dr. Graham’s research interests focus on the fate and transport of pathogens and antimicrobial resistance genes in the built and natural environments. Her previous research projects have focused on wastewater-based epidemiology, quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA), and the removal of pathogens in green stormwater infrastructure. Her lab aims to use molecular biology, microbiology, and modeling tools to address issues of water, climate, and health domestically and internationally.

Mr. Caravati is a Principal and Founder of Applied Plasma Arc Technologies, LLC and a Senior Research Scientist and Professional Geologist at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), the applied research arm of the Georgia Institute of Technology. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Geology from the University of Dayton, Ohio, and a Master of Science in Geology-Hydrogeology track from the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. He earned a Master’s degree in Business Administration (International Business) from the Stetson School of Business and Economics at Mercer University in Atlanta. He began work with GTRI in 2002.

Mr. Caravati served as a Hydrogeologist, Project Manager, and Project Director for a wide range of water resources and water quality projects in the United States, Mexico and England. He has led numerous water resource investigations that included delineating watersheds using aerial imagery and GIS tools, well installation and testing programs, monitoring and field data collection programs, and developing ground water flow and contaminant transport models for predictive studies. Since 2008, he served as Director of the Environmental Safety and Occupational Health Programs at GTRI, and as Program Manager for environmental engineering research for a global services provider. Mr. Caravati also served as a research lead in Georgia Tech’s Plasma Arc Research Facility. 

Mr. Caravati’s areas of research include the design and prototyping of dry sanitation systems; testing of chemical and biological sensor systems for environmental applications; modeling of renewable energy systems for rural areas; water supply and wastewater studies for sustainability and energy efficiency; and water resource investigations for rural watersheds in developing countries. He serves as a Research Advisor to Georgia Tech’s Engineering Students Without Borders chapter, and in 2007 he led or participated in projects in Angola, Bolivia, and Yellowstone National Park, and served in an advisory capacity for projects in Kenya, Japan, Korea, Guam, and Ireland.

Katherine Duchesneau is a Ph.D. student in the School of Biological Sciences at Georgia Tech. Her dissertation research closely couples biogeochemistry with metagenomics to elucidate the impacts of climate change on soil microbial communities that play an important role in greenhouse gas production and the global carbon cycle. Over the long term, she plans to pursue a career in academia, generating fundamental research that drives the development of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. Katherine strongly believes that substantive solutions for sustainability issues will only be achieved through multi-disciplinary and diverse collaborations that bring together scientists, policymakers, and the public. Before coming to Georgia Tech, Katherine completed a MSc at Queen’s University with Dr. Robert Colautti and Dr. Pedro Antunes researching the effects of Alliaria petiolata invasion on soil microbial communities. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Biology, specializing in plant biology, from McGill University.

Jenny became an Assistant Professor at Georgia Tech in August 2017. She uses both modern and paleontological specimens to identify how populations, species, and communities have responded to past climate change. Her goal is to identify strategies to conserve as much biodiversity as possible given rapidly shifting climates. She received her PhD from the Dept. of Integrative Biology at UC-Berkeley, and did postdoctoral research at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center and at the University of Washington.

Kate Pride Brown is an environmental and political sociologist whose research focuses on a range of issues, including environmental activism in Russia and conservation policy in the United States. She received her doctorate from Vanderbilt University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and Environment. Her book, Saving the Sacred Sea: The Power of Civil Society in an Age of Authoritarianism and Globalization (Oxford University Press, 2018), examines the conflict between local and transnational environmentalists, multinational corporations, and the Russian government over the future of Lake Baikal, the largest, deepest and oldest freshwater lake on Earth. While she continues to study environmental issues in Russia, especially around Lake Baikal, Dr. Brown has also published research on water and energy politics and policy in the United States. She is currently studying the "nuclear renaissance" in the southeastern United States. Among other honors, she has received a Fulbright Fellowship, a Critical Language Scholarship from the U.S. Department of State, and funding from the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy and the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research. Her research has appeared in Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Energy Research and Social Science, Environmental Politics, Environmental Sociology, Ethnography, Memory Studies, Nature and Culture, Research in Political Sociology, Social Movement Studies, Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, Water Policy and WIREs Water.