Group: Faculty

Research Focus

As Assistant Director for Research Operations with the Center for Resilient and Sustainable Communities (C-RASC), I work to connect researchers from across disciplines with community partners to collaboratively solve problems that can help communities build on existing strengths and learn from new challenges to emerge stronger than ever.

My own research is informed by my background in environmental science and policy, geography, and education and driven by 3 core principles: 1) meaningful community and stakeholder engagement; 2) mixed-method, transdisciplinary approaches; and 3) leveraging technology. Some of my most recent work explored local priorities for estuary restoration, marine debris prevention, and climate change adaptation using methods such as participatory mapping, focus groups, surveys, and interviews.

Current Projects

■ Community GIS and citizen science research experience for undergraduates and teachers in Belize.

■ Exploring the role of sense of place in coastal restoration in the Indian River Lagoon, FL.

Select Publications

■ Torres, H. et al. (2019). Examining youth perceptions and social contexts of litter to improve marine debris environmental education. Environmental Education Research, 25(3), 1-16.

■ Torres, H. and Alsharif, K. (2017). What it means to become “more resilient”: An analysis of local resilience- building approaches in three Florida communities. Weather, climate, and society, 9(3), 405-419.

■ Saylor, C.R., Alsharif, K., Torres, H. (2017). The importance of traditional ecological knowledge in agroecological systems in Peru. International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management, 13(1). 150-161.

Research Focus

I design and fabricate sensors, integrate sensors into a smart sensor system to monitor the chemicals and pollution in the environment. In addition, my research focuses on self-powered, autonomous-driving monitoring platforms for aquatic ecosystems.

Current Projects

■ Topological insulator field effect transistors for memory and sensors (NSF research grant).

■ Nanoengineered hybrid gas sensors for spacesuit monitoring.

■ Graphene chemical sensors for precise discrimination.

Select Publications

■ Shi, C., et al. (2018). Precise gas discrimination with cross-reactive graphene and metal oxide sensor arrays. Applied Physics Letters, 113(22), 222102.

■ Ye, H., et al. (2018). Enhance the discrimination precision of graphene gas sensors with a hidden markov model. Analytical Chemistry, 90(22), 13790-13795.

■ Khan, M. A. H., et al. (2019). Recent advances in electrochemical sensors for detecting toxic gases: NO2, SO2 and H2S. Sensors, 19(4), 905.

■ Yuan, H. et al. (2018). A hierarchical vision-based localization of rotor unmanned aerial vehicles for autonomous landing. International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks, 14(9).

Research Focus

My research examines the illicit trade in all forms of natural resources — fish, wildlife, timber, metals and other natural commodities. It studies the patterns of this trade as well as their impact on human and political security. Illicit trade was probably at the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic as illicit trade of animals in wet markets may have led to the initial transmission of the COVID-19 virus. This is why my book on illicit trade, Dark Commerce: How a New Illicit Economy Threatens Our Future saw the great harm and threatening consequences that could result from diverse forms of illicit trade including natural resources. My research focuses on how this illicit trade in natural resources is deeply tied to corruption. I also examine the illicit financial flows associated with the illicit trade in natural resources.

Current Projects

■ Corruption and Resource Governance – USAID project (subgrantee to WWF): The purpose of the Targeting Natural Resource Corruption (TNRC) project is to strengthen USAID’s efforts and those of a wider community of NRM and anti-corruption stakeholders to improve natural resource management (NRM) outcomes by reducing threats posed by corruption to wildlife, fisheries and forests. TNRC will focus on harnessing existing knowledge, delivering new thought leadership and strengthening evidence on effective approaches to anti-corruption issues in NRM; leveraging practitioner and stakeholder networks for knowledge dissemination and improved anti-corruption; deepening global partnerships to combat corruption in the management of natural resources; and more effective anti-corruption programming on the ground.

Select Publications

■ Shelley, L. (2018). Dark Commerce: How a New Illicit Economy Is Threatening Our Future. Princeton University Press.

■ Shelley, L. (2018). Corruption and Illicit Trade. Daedalus Summer, 147(3), 127–143.

■ Shelley, L. (2014). Dirty Entanglements: Corruption, Crime, and Terrorism. Cambridge University Press.

■ Shelley, L. (2017). Human Trafficking at Sea. WSQ, 45, No. 1-2, 305-309.

■ Shelley, L. & Kinnard, K. (2018). The Convergence of Illicit Wildlife Trade with other Forms of Criminality. In Wildlife Crime: From Theory to Practice, ed. William D. Moreto. Temple University Press.

Research Focus

My work has focused on the Potomac River and its watershed. My most extensive project is the long term study documenting the recovery of the tidal Potomac River from nutrient over enrichment and subsequent eutrophication. My major finding has been that the stringent nutrient controls on sewage discharges that went into place in the early 1980’s have resulted in greatly improved water clarity and a major restoration of aquatic plant communities and animal habitat in the tidal Potomac River.

I have also studied the impacts of watershed suburbanization on streams and the ecology of stormwater management ponds which now dot our landscape.

Current Projects

■ An Ecological Study of Gunston Cove (continuous since 1984)

■ An Ecological Study of Hunting Creek (continuous since 2013)

■ Ecology of Benthic Cyanobacteria in the Tidal Occoquan River

Select Publications

■ Jones, R.C. (2020). Recovery of a tidal freshwater embayment from eutrophication: a multidecadal study. Estuaries and Coasts 43, 1318-1334.

Research Focus

My research focus involves cultural and religious foundations of violence – including violence against the environment and the interaction among various kinds of violence (direct, structural, cultural, and ecoviolence) are being addressed by nonviolent alternatives. I am studying those alternatives and the nature of violence and how people are transforming society toward a sustainable future.

Current Projects

■ The Warrior and the Pacifist: Religion and the Rhetoric of Violence. Gandhi’s revolutionary synthesis of contradictory motifs that run through all of the world’s religious and ethical traditions with the nonviolent activist motif.

■ Nonwestern social theory – rethinking our social theory by incorporating indigenous knowledge and nonwestern theories of social life and action.

■ Violence, Peace and Conflict – editing a 3rd edition of a 4-volume encyclopedia (Elsevier).

■ Asian contributions to peacebuilding and sustainability.

Select Publications

■ Kurtz, Lester R. (2008). Encyclopedia of violence, peace & conflict. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

■ Kurtz, Lester R. (2016). Shifting economic paradigms, mobilizing nonviolent resistance. Ahimsa Nonviolence, 7(2), 129-133.

■ Kurtz, Lester R. (2015). Fighting violence against women: A toolkit. In Women, war and violence: Typography, resistance and hope. Edited by Mariam M. Kurtz and Lester R. Kurtz, 2, 559-591. Santa Barbara: Praeger.

■ Kurtz, Lester R. (2008). Gandhi and his legacies. 2nd Amsterdam Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace and Conflict.