Environmental Science and Design Research Institute
Seeking Answers In the Arctic
Arctic permafrost typically functions as a vast freezer that preserves decaying plant matter for thousands of years, but rapidly warming climate is thawing permafrost and accelerating decomposition. Increased plant growth is needed to capture carbon that is released from decomposing organic matter, …
Division of Research & Economic Development
Waste to Value
Open water placement of dredged material in Lake Erie will be banned in the State of Ohio after July 1, 2020. However, eight federal navigation harbors built along Ohio’s Lake Erie coast still need to remove more than 1.5 million cubic yards of sediment.
What to do with this large amount of material removed from the ports in Ohio poses a major challenge. Securing the dredged material in a confined disposal facility (CDF) is costly. An alternative approach is to reuse the dredged material as a construction and landscaping material.
Division of Research & Economic Development
Biologist Partners With Toledo Colleague To Make Water Safer
The toxic algae bloom crisis in Toledo in 2014 put the issue of water treatment front and center, and problems like those in Flint, Michigan, and Sebring, Ohio have only added more weight to the discussion.Xiaozhen Mou, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, is working with colleagues at…
Division of Research & Economic Development
Turning Food Waste Into a Window of Opportunity
Kent State biology student rescues excess food for educational feast Imagine planning a dinner party for 500 of your closest friends and not knowing what you will serve until almost the last minute. It might sound stressful, but for Erin Shattuck it is a privilege. Ms. Shattuck is passionate a…
Kent State Today
Kent State Architect Students Use Fabric, Rope and Ice to Construct International Recognition
The details are stunning. The size - mammoth. The temperature - frigid. They are some of the most awe-inspiring creations made out of mother nature’s most exquisite winter ingredients: snow and ice. Equally impressive are the artists, architects and engineers who take that snow and ice and design a…
College of Architecture & Environmental Design
Arbor Day Foundation Honors Kent State With Tree Campus USA Recognition for 10th Consecutive Year
Trees fill the sky every season as far as the eye can see as 5XÉçÇø students walk down the Lefton Esplanade on the Kent Campus. Large oaks provide shade on a warm summer day, glistening maple trees leave a blanket of orange and red on the ground as students move back into the residenc…
Kent Campus
Operation: Restoration
On a cold, rainy Saturday at the end of September, a group of volunteers and researchers trudge up a steep, muddy hill in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CVNP). They’ve come out to celebrate National Public Lands Day and, despite the conditions, they’re having fun planting over 480 native trees o…
Kent State Magazine
KSU Collections
Herrick Conservatory In the dead of winter, Kent State’s greenhouse complex teems with life. Home to a diverse array of plants—and some fish—the facility is also filled with people. Students and faculty members from the biological sciences department conduct research there, students fr…
Kent State Magazine
"We're Killing Our Lakes and Oceans": Kent State Geology Professor Co-Authors Op-Ed Essay
Joseph D. Ortiz, Ph.D., professor and assistant chair in the department of geology at 5XÉçÇø recently co-authored an op-ed essay for Undark.org with his colleague Eelco J. Rohling, a professor of ocean and climate change at the Australian National University in Canberra, and…
Division of Research & Economic Development
Researchers End Ongoing Debate Over How to Determine the Age of Beluga Whales
You have likely seen one at an aquarium. It is the friendly creature with the oversized head that swims up to the glass with what looks like a smile on its face. Beluga whales are extremely social mammals that are often called sea canaries because of their high-pitched chatter, or melonheads for the…
Kent Campus