Start your water-related career in the deep end at IU
World-class faculty
Explore critical minerals, carbon dioxide removal, and climate impacts on water
Dr. Chen Zhu, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Dr. Zhu studies CO2-water-rock interactions, an everyday Earth process that plays a pivotal role in efforts to combat and adapt to climate change.
As a primary investigator, Dr. Zhu has been awarded a total of $4.2M of external research grants and $900k of internal grants. With a grant from the National Science Foundation, he is studying how rates of CO2 mineralization in soils, rocks, and aquifers may serve as scalable climate change mitigation solutions.
He was the 2021-22 Henry Darcy Distinguished Lecturer for the Groundwater Foundation. He's also an adjunct professor in the School of Public Health and the O'Neill School.
Explore the Zhu Laboratory
Assess, model, and analyze how climate affects water quality and aquatic habitat
Dr. Darren Ficklin, Geography
Dr. Ficklin focuses on integrated modeling of climate variability and change, the hydrological cycle in agricultural and mountainous settings, water resources systems, and aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
Now, he's interested in climate change's effects on water quality and the regions of the American West that depend on snowmelt. He also uses modeling to analyze how the distribution of aquatic habitats change based on stream flow and temperature projections.
Dr. Ficklen's work has been published in Nature Water, Nature Geoscience, and Earth's Future, among others. It's been cited more than 3,700 times in the last five years.
Read more about Dr. Ficklin's research
Study how land use and humans affect freshwater quality
Dr. Todd Royer, O'Neill School
Dr. Royer specializes in water resources, nutrient and carbon cycling, water quality, and nutrient standards. His team researches how nitrogen, phosphorus, organic carbon, and land use impact water quality in intensively farmed watersheds, as well as urban and suburban streams.
His work has been published in the Journal of Environmental Quality, Limnology and Oceanography, and Biogeochemistry, among many others. His work with the Indiana Watershed Initiative was recognized by the White House.
He's the editor of Freshwater Science. The O'Neill School professor also serves as an adjunct professor in the Department of Biology and as IU's Faculty Chair for Environmental Science.
Find out more about the Royer Lab
Unearth how water reshapes our planet through atmosphere and geology
Dr. Brian Yanites, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Dr. Yanites studies how atmospheric and geologic processes evolve the landscape. This often involves water, such as eroding bedrock river systems, the relationship between sediment supply and river morphology, how Taiwanese rivers react to large earthquakes, and even how spawning salmon shape mountains and valleys.
His research has been published in Geomorphology, Geology, the Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, and Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, among many others. The NSF has funded over $1.27M of his work.
He is the Robert R. Shrock Professor in Surficial/Sedimentary Geology and serves as the director of undergraduate studies for the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
Visit the Geomorphology and Landscape Evolution Lab
Use modeling, GIS, remote sensing, and machine learning to understand changing water cycles in a warming world
DR. ZHIYING LI, O'NEILL SCHOOL
Dr. Li wants to get to the bottom of what drives changes in the water cycle in a warming world, and their impacts. To do this, she uses models, machine learning, big data, GIS, and remote sensing to study drought, flooding, and other hydroclimatic extremes, and water availability.
Ultimately, she wants her research to inform risk mitigation and climate resilient strategies. She was lead author on a paper about whether the U.S. Drought Monitor, which helps the government decide aid eligibility and emergency declarations, can keep pace with climate change in a drier American West.
Her work has been published in AGU Advances, Anthropocene, Water Resources Research, Energy, and the Journal of Hydrology. It was featured in the Los Angeles Times. In 2021, she received a Story Exchange Women in Science Incentive Prize.
Discover the Hydroclimatology Group at the O’Neill SchoolHow will you contribute to water-related research?
Team with IPE-affiliated faculty members across disciplines at IU. Find the professors leading the courses and research projects in water most interesting to you:Uncover your purpose with the right water-related degree
If you're interested in water ecology, human systems, or how its interactions could mitigate climate change, IU is the place to further your research and career. We offer undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees, plus minors and certificates related to water.