Contacts:
Ryan Hughes works with media outlets in the Tampa Bay region and Florida
Phone: 215-704-3182
John Dudley works with national and international media outlets
Phone: 814-490-3290
HURRICANES, WIND AND EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS
Jennifer Collins
Professor of geosciences
- Hurricanes
- Proposed changes to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale
- Human behavior relating to hurricane evacuation
- Tropical cyclones
STORM SURGE, SEA-LEVEL RISE AND COASTAL SUBSIDENCE
Yonggang Liu
Associate professor of physical oceanography and director of the Ocean Circulation Lab
- Short-term storm surge scenarios
- Coastal flooding
- Hurricane intensification forecasting
Gary Mitchum
Associate dean and professor of physical oceanography
- Global sea-level rise
- The impacts of sea-level rise, storm surge and hurricanes
- The broader connections between climate change and hurricanes
Timothy Dixon
Professor of geosciences
- Use of satellite geodesy to study coastal subsidence, earthquake and volcano deformation, aquifer depletion and melting ice sheets and glaciers
- The effects of hurricanes on coastal flooding and long-term changes to the coastline
FLOODING
Tom Frazer
Dean, professor of biological oceanography and executive director of the Florida Flood Hub for Applied Research and Innovation
- Flood planning
- Flood resilience
- Florida Flood Hub’s role in helping communities prepare for flood events and other natural hazards
Barnali Dixon
Professor of geosciences, director of the Geospatial Analytics Lab and executive director of the Initiative on Coastal Adaptation and Resilience at USF
- Development of a web-based application that gathers crowdsourced data in coastal communities to identify flood risks and inform emergency managers and policy
- Development and application of tools and systems for modeling and managing land-water interfaces in the context of extreme weather events and climate change
Donny Smoak
Professor of biogeochemistry
- Soil carbon accumulation rates in coastal wetlands as indicators of long-term ecosystem stability
- The fate of coastal wetland ecosystems in the context of climate change, rising sea level and hurricanes
CLIMATE IMPACTS ON MARINE SYSTEMS AND ECOLOGY
Chuanmin Hu
Professor of physical oceanography
- The use of satellite optics to address coastal ocean problems including algal blooms and coral reef environmental health
- The impacts of climate and human influence on coastal/estuarine water quality
Ping Wang
Professor of geosciences
- Coastal erosion and nourishment
- The effects of extreme weather, particularly hurricanes, on coastlines and beaches
Steve Murawski
Research professor of biological oceanography
- The impacts of climate on fisheries and marine ecology
RED TIDE AND HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS
Jim Ivey
Instructor of geosciences
- Red tide, harmful algal blooms, water quality and microplastics
- The use of a model to estimate the underwater light field through remote sensing of ocean color
CARBON AND HISTORICAL CLIMATE CHANGES
Patrick Rafter
Assistant professor of chemical oceanography
- Marine carbon cycling and climate from the past, present and future
- The influence of greenhouse gases on climate events such as El Niño
Brad Rosenheim
Professor of geological oceanography
- Changes in climate and carbon cycling in the recent geologic past
EXTREME HEAT
Thomas Culhane
Associate professor of instruction and director of climate mitigation and adaptation
- Climate mitigation and adaptation
- Harnessing the effects of extreme heat and the extreme power of storms and using them as sources of energy
- Community-scale biodigesters, windmills and greenhouses to exploit hotter temperatures and stronger winds to offset fossil fuel use
Taryn Sabia
Assistant dean and associate professor of research
- Heat resilience and urban planning
- Tree canopies, cooling centers and extreme heat as it relates to social vulnerability
George Philippidis
Associate dean and professor of chemical engineering
- Climate change, adaptation and mitigation
- Clean technologies, renewable and sustainable energy products and fuels
- Algae, biomass, oil-seed crops, microbiome, red tide, environmental pollution and energy policy
EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANOES
Stephen McNutt
Professor of geosciences
- Source and propagation effects for volcanic tremor, low-frequency events and explosion earthquakes
- Volcano seismology and the mechanical behavior of volcanoes
- Volcanic hazards assessment
Jochen Braunmiller
Research assistant professor of geosciences
- Earthquake source mechanisms and mechanics
- Regional and global tectonics
- Earth structure and composition from passive seismology
- Fault interaction
Glenn Thompson
Research assistant professor of geosciences
- Volcanic earthquake swarms, tremor and debris flows
- Discrete volcanic-seismic signals
- Rainfall-induced dome collapses
EXTREME HEAT AND HEALTH
Dr. Farnaz Tabatabaian
Associate professor of internal medicine
- The impacts of hotter temperatures on normal seasonal disease die-off, the immune system and respiratory health, including increased allergy flare-ups, asthma, colds and flu
DISASTER RESPONSE AND RECOVERY
Elizabeth Dunn
Instructor of public health
- Community mobilization and response to disasters such as storms and wildfires
- Training residents in basic response skills
- Sheltering and evacuation coordination
- Long-term recovery
Ratna Dougherty
Assistant professor of public affairs
- Interorganizational coordination during disasters
- Assessing how agencies respond to disasters
- Part of a research team that performed field work following the 2023 Maui wildfires
EXTREME WEATHER AND OLDER ADULTS
Lindsay Peterson
Assistant professor of aging studies
- The impact of hurricanes and other disasters on older adults in nursing homes, assisted living communities and the broader community, including those with dementia
- Developed a disaster preparedness guide and a series of videos to help older adults prepare for disasters, particularly family caregivers of people with dementia
- Developing an app to assist older adults in critical disaster preparedness decision-making, such as whether to evacuate or shelter in place
SOCIAL MEDIA AND EXTREME WEATHER
Kelli Burns
Associate professor of advertising and mass communications
- The growing role of Facebook, X and other forms of social media in natural disasters
- How social media is integrated into our lives and changes patterns of communication