Experts Guide

Dixon is director of the Geospatial Analytics Lab and executive director of the Initiative on Coastal Adaptation and Resilience at USF. Her research includes development of a web-based application that gathers crowdsourced data in coastal communities to identify flood risks and inform emergency managers and policy, and development and application of tools and systems for modeling and managing land-water interfaces in the context of extreme weather events and climate change.

Seibel's research focuses on the physiological response of marine animals to extreme environments, ocean acidification, deoxygenation and warming, polar and deep-sea biology, biology of mollusks. His specialties include polar biology, biology of mollusks and ocean acidification.

Barnes has been a research associate in the Optical Oceanography Lab at the University of South Florida College of Marine Science since 2015. His research focuses on assessment and monitoring of coastal systems from satellite remote sensing platforms. In particular, he is working to improve satellite derivations of water quality and benthic classification in optically shallow marine environments, including coral reefs and seagrass beds.

Connor is an expert on volcanos whose research focuses on modeling volcanic processes, probabilistic forecasts of volcanic activity heat and mass transfer of volcanoes.

Meindl studies regional geography, water management and environmental policy. He can also discuss environmental management — particularly the gap between science and policy in water resources such as springs, lakes, rivers and wetlands.

Yeh is an expert in water purification, wastewater resource recovery and life support in challenging, off-grid and remote environments. His research focuses on innovations at the water-energy-food nexus and includes developing autonomous, self-powered water machines, anaerobic and phototrophic membrane bioreactors and food-to-food biorecycling. he serves as principal investigator of the Membrane Biotechnology Lab.

Tabatabaian is an expert in allergy, immunology and infectious disease and can discuss asthma and other heat-related allergies as well as respiratory responses from algal blooms such as red tide.

Hao is an environmental sociologist who can discuss public opinion and environmental behavior, renewable energy, electric vehicle adoption trends, the economic impacts of carbon emissions and social trust as it relates to climate and environmental topics.

Philippidis is a chemical engineer and renewable energy expert with a focus in biofuels and bioproducts, and he holds 11 patents in clean technologies. He serves as acting dean of the Patel College of Global Sustainability and director of the Sustainable Energy concentration. He is a Fulbright Specialist Scholar and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) with expertise in the biofuels and bioproducts sectors. He has authored numerous publications and has developed graduate courses in renewable energy and sustainability.

Thompson studies volcanic earthquake swarms, tremor and debris flows, discrete volcanic-seismic signals and rainfall-induced dome collapses.

Collins is an expert on hurricanes, tropical cyclones, proposed changes to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale to account for rain and flooding and human behavior relating to hurricane evacuation. She is also interested in the interaction between large scale climatic patterns such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation and the Madden–Julian Oscillation and seasonal patterns of tropical cyclone activity in multiple oceanic basins.

Ivey studies red tide, harmful algal blooms, water quality and microplastics and the use of a model to estimate the underwater light field through remote sensing of ocean color.

Braunmiller studies earthquake source mechanisms and mechanics, regional and global tectonics, earth structure and composition from passive seismology and fault interaction.

Parkinson's research lab uses genomic techniques to examine the ecology and evolution of coral-algal symbioses and involves diving on reefs in the field, maintaining coral and algal cultures to experiment with in the laboratory, and translating findings into guidance for coral restoration and conservation practitioners in Florida and beyond.

Burns' research focuses on social media platforms and social media influencers, including how social media influencers can help -- or mislead -- communications during disasters like hurricanes.

Peterson's primary research interest is long-term care policy and practice and communication concerning decision-making, disaster planning and advance care planning for older adults.

Rains' research focuses on wetlands, estuaries and rivers -- including hydrological controls on ecosystem structure and function in fresh, brackish, saline and hypersaline aquatic ecosystems.

Riedinger-Whitmore's research focuses on the conservation of aquatic ecosystems, monitoring the effects of environmental change and anthropogenic impacts on aquatic communities and habitats and providing data that can be used to protect and restore these ecosystems for the future.

Rafter studies marine carbon cycling and climate from the past, present and future and the influence of greenhouse gases on climate events such as El Niño.

Wang is a leading expert on coastal erosion and nourishment. He can discuss the effects of extreme weather, particularly hurricanes, on coastlines and beaches. His work has been prominently featured in newspapers and on television stations in Florida and across the country.

Dougherty studies interorganizational coordination during disasters and disaster assessment. She is part of a research team that performed field work following the 2023 Maui wildfires.

Kruse's research focuses on sinkholes, utility detection and underground pipe.

McNutt is a volcano seismologist who worked for the Alaska Volcano Observatory from 1991-2012. His research interests include seismology, volcanology, infrasound and volcanic lightning. Specifically, he studies volcanic tremor, low-frequency events, and explosion earthquakes, and he coordinates volcano seismology research for USF's Department of Geosciences with Research Assistant Professors Glenn Thompson and Jochen Braunmiller.

Murawski studies population dynamics of exploited marine species, impacts of fishing and other anthropogenic stresses on marine ecosystems and ecosystem modeling and analysis. His areas of focus include fisheries biology, marine ecology, pollution impacts and ocean mapping and undersea technologies.

Sabia can discuss heat resilience and urban planning, tree canopies, cooling centers and extreme heat as it relates to social vulnerability.

Culhane can discuss 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.