Coursework

In this course, students will receive training on key transferable skills, this training being integrated with the content covered in the foregoing INFEWS course. Specifically, this course will train participants in key skills needed by STEM professionals, including ethics, research, communication, teaching, funding procurement, entrepreneurship, management, teamwork, conflict resolution, mentoring, leadership, and outreach.

This is an advanced level course focused on economic analysis. It will help students frame natural resource and environmental problems so that they can be analyzed and solved. Major topic areas include water resources, fisheries, energy (and other non-renewable resources), agriculture, and pollution. Policy instruments such as pricing, emission fees, and tradable permits will be covered in detail.

Economic analysis of natural resource use and environmental issues. Discussion of criteria for public decision making, welfare economics, market failure, benefit-cost analysis, and benefit estimation, as applied to natural resources and the environment.

The course develops the capacity to employ the theories, practices and philosophies of economic development as applied to local areas. The primary geographic focus of the course is the rural south-east of the United States, but examples will be drawn from rural areas in other developed countries.

A sociological study of selected social issues facing Appalachian communities, with an emphasis on placing regional political economy, society and culture in a global context.

Appalachia has always had strong global connections, environmentally, economically, and culturally. Current cultural and political economic issues in the region will be examined in comparative perspective through studying related histories and concerns of communities in Appalachia and other mountain regions, including social and economic marginalization within nation-states, resource extraction, low- wage work, migration, and environmental challenges. Students will have the opportunity to communicate directly with residents and scholars of several different global mountain regions, to consider sustainable livelihoods, identity in relationship to place, and social movements.

This graduate seminar explores food as fundamental to human existence in a variety of ways. We eat to maintain life – and the nutritional characteristics of human diets shape the development and health of individuals and populations. But, for the most part, humans do not eat nutrients, humans eat food, and food consumption and production is an intensely cultural, social and political activity. We will explore food and nutrition from all these perspectives. In addition to theorizing food and nutrition, we will become familiar with the methods most often used by national and global scholars and practitioners for assessing dietary and nutritional status of individuals and populations.

This seminar explores the interrelationships between social processes, development and the environment. It provides the graduate student with the necessary theoretical and analytical tools to examine the social and cultural processes of environmental degradation and change. Topics include political ecology, health impacts of development, deforestation, resource tenure systems, environmental grassroots movements and large-scale development organizations.

This course introduces students to the science and engineering of converting biorenewable resources into bioenergy and biobased products. Topics include: Defining the resource base; physical and chemical properties of biorenewable resources; description of biobased products; methods of production for biorenewable resources.

Introduction to thermal and catalytic processes for the conversion of biomass to biofuels and other biobased products. Topics include gasification, fast pyrolysis, hydrothermal processing, syngas to synfuels, and bio-oil upgrading.

This course studies the principles, methodology and analysis of geographic information systems and spatially-referenced data unique to water resources and hydrologic modeling. Lectures will explore the latest GIS concepts, hydrologic modeling relationships and data sources and be complimented with computer- based laboratory exercises.

This course explores the history and current status of biofuels and bioproducts development, the policy drivers and stakeholders, current industrial players, mainstream processing technologies, and current and future research themes. Expanding the technical aspects, this course will cover biochemical conversion techniques for producing bioethanol, biobutanol, biodiesel, biogas, and other advanced biofuels/ bioproducts and thermochemical conversion techniques towards syngas, bio-oil, and biochar.

An analysis of processing operations for the conversion or generation of biological materials. The course material applies thermodynamics, heat transfer, mass and energy balances, and reaction kinetics to biological process operations such as sterilization, fermentation, product recovery, freezing, drying, evaporation, and refrigeration. Applications include biomedical, food processing, and biochemical and biofuel production from biomass.

Introduction to principles of fluvial geomorphology for application in restoring impaired streams. Topics include channel formation processes (hydrology/ hydraulics), stream assessment, sediment transport, in-stream structures, erosion control, habitat, and monitoring.

Rainfall physics, principles of erosion on upland areas and construction sites, stable channel design in alluvial material, mechanics of sediment transport, river mechanics, reservoir sedimentation.

Principles of surface water quality modeling and control. Analysis of dispersion, advection, natural aeration, biological oxidation and photosynthesis; their effects on the physical, chemical, and biological quality of waters in streams, lakes, reservoirs, estuaries and other surface waters.

This course provides an overview of the scientific principles and management strategies used to effectively manage the physical, chemical, biological and social resources within a watershed so as to improve and sustain the integrity of the watershed system. The course will examine watershed management from both a scientific/engineering perspective as well as from a social science/ policy perspective. Examples of effective watershed management will be drawn from cases studies in Kentucky and the United States. Students will be provided with an introduction to those spatial data sets, computer software, and methods currently used in watershed management practice.

Environmental microbiology for engineering students with emphasis on microbially mediated chemical cycles, microbial ecology, and industrial microbiology.

In this course, applications of humanitarian and sustainable engineering solutions and technology are studied and concepts of sustainable development are covered. Topics are drawn from several areas of engineering, including water supply, water treatment, water storage, wastewater treatment, materials, solid waste management, construction, and watersheds. Students taking this course will: 1) understand and apply engineering fundamentals and appropriate technology in design, construction, operation, and maintenance of engineering projects that serve people living in the developing world and smaller communities in the U.S.; 2) learn how community-based engineering projects fit into larger, global issues of sustainable development; 3) develop an understanding of the important inter-relationship of public health and engineering; and 4) incorporate environmental, societal, and economic considerations and community participation into engineering practice.

This course focuses on the application of quantitative sustainable design to engineering infrastructure and technologies. Quantitative sustainable design is a process of mechanistically linking design and operational decisions to sustainability indicators to inform decision-making. This process enables navigation of trade-offs across dimensions of sustainability (e.g., environmental, economic, social) so that design and operation can be informed by sustainability metrics. This course will focus specifically on environmental and economic impacts by using two tools – life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) – along with uncertainty and sensitivity analyses. The main component of this course will be a design project in which students apply this process to inform the design and operation of an engineering infrastructure system or technology of interest.

Study of the sources, reactions, transport, effects, and fates of chemical species in the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and biosphere.

A study of applications of organic materials in electronic and optical devices, focusing on appropriate material-selection, processing, and interpretation of device output. Will cover basic methods for the formation of thin films of organic molecules and polymers, various spectroscopic techniques relevant to device performance, and methods to form and measure devices such as transistors and light-emitting diodes. Hybrid organic-inorganic material systems, and complex device structures for all-organic circuitry will be discussed.

An advanced study of the theory and practice of quantitative analysis.

Overview of technologies used for generating electricity from location, recovery, transportation and storage of fuel to the types of technologies used to convert the fuel to electricity. Included is a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of each technology and how they must adapt to be viable in the future. Technologies covered include coal, natural gas, nuclear, biomass, wind, solar and advanced technologies.

This course will survey some of the most important environmental problems (climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, water scarcity) and the tools needed to analyze, understand, and respond to these problems (market-based solutions, political economy, institutional economic theories, environmental ethics). Students will also explore new scientific ideas on sustainability to better understand the contemporary environmental problems the world is facing. With rigorous thinking about the science of sustainability, students will have the knowledge and skills so that they can help institutions, business, public policy, and individuals understand and act on key principles of sustainability.

This course will explore the roles of governments, markets, and civil society in the creation, adoption, and implementation of environmental and sustainability rules and norms. We will evaluate leading environmental and policy strategies, including traditional state regulation, market-based incentives and regulations created by private actors (civil society and corporations/Corporate Social Responsibility). Increasingly, the interactions between different forms of regulation figure prominently in debates about environmental and sustainability governance. We will draw upon empirical examples of governance and policy for a diverse reference set of environmental and sustainability challenges and solutions. Students will develop strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills in order to contribute to environmental and sustainability policy and governance.

The course provides students an understanding of the latest scientific research in the field of environment and sustainability studies and the tools to communicate this research effectively to the public. In addition, students will learn key technical writing skills to apply knowledge in environmental and sustainability studies. For technical writing, students will develop skills for writing letters, grant proposals, reports, and presentations for specific audiences. To communicate with a broad audience about the questions central to environmental and sustainability studies, students will write short articles, record podcasts, make videos, craft memes, and author multimodal texts. Storytelling and clear description will also be emphasized across multiple platforms, which will include blogs, audio podcasts and short videos, among others. Students will build the critical skillsets necessary for technical writing as well as craft dynamic and compelling stories about environment and sustainability issues.

Advanced biology and natural resources course about the ecology of freshwater environments. Course material covers 1) interactions among freshwater species and between the species and their aquatic environment, 2) how these interactions influence distribution and abundance of freshwater species, and 3) conservation and management of freshwater species and aquatic systems.

The use of microorganisms in the preservation of raw foods and the manufacture of new foods. Manipulation and improvement of cultures to ensure production of desirable end products.

Soil reaction/cycling of elements essential to plant growth; rates, timing and placement of nutrient sources in modern crop/soil management systems; plant and soil sampling and analysis to diagnose plant nutrition stress.

Study of the physical environment (radiation, temperature, precipitation, and evapotranspiration) in which crops are grown and the effect of the environment on crop growth and yield. Both micro- and macro-climatic relationships are considered.

Soil microbiology is the study of the macro- and microscopic life in soil: what it is, how it adapts to the soil environment, what it does, and why it is important. This course emphasizes interactions between organisms and their environment and how these interactions affect the world in which we live. Critical thinking skills will be emphasized, particularly the ability to interpret data collected during microbiological investigations of soil.

Study of nutrient cycles as linked to energy and water in terrestrial ecosystems. Effects of agricultural production and management on nutrient and energy flows at local, regional, and global scales.

Contact Prof. Akinbode Adedeji for details.

Contact Prof. Tiffany Messer for details.