CNSM Research Snapshots
Learn about our faculty research and keep up with the newest information on our laboratories.
New CNSM laboratories are featured monthly! If you would like your lab to be featured, please reach out to the CNSM Associate Dean for Research.
Dr. Alyssa Abbey
November 2024 Snapshot
Research by students in Dr. Alyssa Abbey's laboratory, in CNSM's Earth Science Department, focuses on understanding long-term changes in landscapes and what factors lead to those changes, from tectonic activity to climate change. By dating when faults start moving, how fast they move and how long they are active, Dr. Abbey and her students can examine how growing mountains change river routes and mammal migration patterns.
The Abbey laboratory team also investigates the methods geologists use to date landscape changes – including how scientists track and report errors and how to model the data they collect.
Finally, Dr. Abbey and her team are also interested in Geoscience education. Their research in this area examines how different teaching practices including immersive field experiences and job skill training can increase student interest, understanding, and belonging in STEM.
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Dr. Darren Johnson
October 2024 Snapshot
Research by students in Dr. Darren Johnson’s laboratory, in CNSM’s Biological Sciences Department, suggests that changes in ocean temperature and acidity decrease the survival of fishes from the moment they hatch.
Specifically, they study how changes in ocean temperature and pH alter patterns of natural selection and measure the genetic capacity for fish populations to evolve. Researchers in the Johnson laboratory aim to better understand how climate change may threaten our fish populations, including understanding if fish larvae may become more tolerant of some climate change conditions.
So far, their research suggests that genetic adaptation can provide a critical boost to the long-term health of fish populations. However, the Johnson research team has also shown that adaptive responses cannot completely offset the harmful effects of a changing climate at the current rate of change.
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Dr. Fangyuan Tian
September 2024 Snapshot
Research students in the Tian Laboratory focus materials on a chemical level. They work to understand the surface and interface chemistry of solid materials, with a goal of designing biocompatible coatings that can do a variety of things, including methane capture and drug delivery.
Two major research directions in Dr. Tian's laboratory are:
- The fundamental properties and chemical reactivities of nano-structured solid hybrid materials for energy and environmental applications.
- Designing surface-supportive porous metal-organic frameworks for drug delivery.
The Tian Lab's most recent research involves the study of two-dimensional conductive and semiconductive porous crystalline thin films. This is exciting because advances in understanding electrically conductive material have led to a range of applications in energy storage, chemical sensing, electrocatalysis, and fuel cells. For chemists like Dr. Tian, it is critically important to explore the electron transfer behaviors observed on these ultrathin porous materials.
Undergraduate and graduate students in the Tian Lab are gaining hands-on experience in surface sciences and materials chemistry as they work together to understand and create the future of high-tech materials.
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