Faculty

Faculty affiliated with the Center represent many units throughout the university, and bring vital interdisciplinary expertise to solving water problems.

  • Bob Edmonds
  • Interim Water Center Director
  • Professor and Associate Dean
  • Forest Resources
  • Forest soil microbiology; biology of forest diseases; watershed processes, stream chemistry; influence of forest management practices
  • Jim Agee
  • Professor Emeritus
  • Forest Resources
  • Forest and fire ecology; fire effects and fire history particularly in forests of the western United States
  • Marina Alberti
  • Associate Professor
  • Department of Urban Design and Planning
  • Land use change effects on the biophysical structure and ecosystem dynamics in the Puget Sound region; measures of urban environmental performance that can be used to monitor progress and inform policy-making
  • Bob Bilby
  • Affiliate Professor
  • Weyerhaeuser
  • Nutrient and organic matter dynamics in stream ecosystems; production, trophic relationships, population dynamics, and community interaction of stream-dwelling fishes; effects of large woody debris on stream structure and function; effects of forest practices on streams and ecology of riparian systems
  • Pete Bisson
  • Affiliate Professor
  • USDA Forest Service
  • Process of fish habitat formation in streams; limiting factors of trout and salmon production; effects of land use practices on stream ecosystems; zoogeography of freshwater fishes
  • Susan Bolton
  • Professor
  • Forest Resources
  • Surface water hydrology; watershed management; land-water interactions; stream restoration, sustainable development, and ecological engineering
  • Derek Booth
  • Research Professor
  • Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Analysis of consequences of geologic processes and materials on land-use—stream channels, river systems, hillslope stability, erosion, and groundwater; measurement and prediction of sediment transport in streams; development and execution of monitoring programs; prediction of future hazards to human activity and resources as a result of ongoing urban development
  • Mike Brett
  • Associate Professor
  • Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Limnology; nutrients and nutrition in lakes; water quality; food webs
  • Sally Brown
    Research Associate Professor
    Forest Resources
    Soil Amendments, In situ remediation, carbon sequestration
  • Stephen Burges
  • Professor
  • Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Stream temperatures
  • Loveday Conquest
  • Professor
  • Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
  • Statistical methods for use in forestry/fisheries management, environmental pollution problems; biological monitoring, and watershed management; teaching courses in statistical methods, design; consultant training for students in renewable resource management
  • Kern Ewing
  • Associate Professor
  • Forest Resources
  • Restoration of western U.S. ecosystem types, including freshwater wetlands, coastal wetlands, prairie, shrub-steppe, arid lands, oak woodlands, montane, and thornscrub vegetation types
  • Robert Gara
  • Professor
  • Forest Resources
  • Forest entomology; international forestry; aquatic entomology; Chilean forest insects
  • Alex Horner-Devine
  • Assistant Professor
  • Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Environmental fluid mechanics; coastal oceanography and geophysical fluid dynamics; estuaries and river plumes; sediment transport; fish passage
  • Jim Karr
  • Emeritus Professor
  • Aquatic and Fishery Sciences and Zoology
  • Tropical forest ecology; aquatic ecology; watershed management; ecology of fish and invertebrates in streams; influence of human-induced disturbances on biological systems using the index of biotic integrity (IBI) as a biologically based approach to evaluate the condition of living systems
  • Rick Keil
  • Associate Professor
  • School of Oceanography
  • Application of organic geochemistry to emerging environmental issues such as climate change and pollutant distributions and sinks in marine systems
  • Peter Kiffney
  • Affiliate Professor
  • National Marine Fisheries Service
  • Abiotic and biotic controls of stream food webs in the Pacific Northwest; light regime and riparian vegetation influences on stream productivity and food web dynamics
  • Dennis P. Lettenmaier
  • Professor
  • Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Hydrologic model development and application; prediction of hydrologic impacts of climate and land use change; continental and global hydrologic modeling and prediction; seasonal to interannual hydrologic forecasting; spatially distributed hydrologic modeling, data assimilation, arctic hydrology
  • Dave Montgomery
  • Professor
  • Earth and Space Sciences
  • Director
  • Quaternary Research Center
  • Geomorphology of tectonically active landscapes; geomorphic processes; impacts of natural and anthropogenic disturbance; development of practical methods for minimizing land use disturbance
  • Robert J. Naiman
  • Professor
  • College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences
  • Structure and dynamics of stream ecosystems; riparian vegetation; the role of large animals in influencing ecosystem dynamics; riparian systems; interactions between salmon, brown bear, and riparian vegetation; environmental consequences of artificially changing water regimes
  • Timothy Nyerges
  • Professor
  • Geography
  • Urban sustainability modeling and collaborative decision support; GIS for risk evaluation and decision analysis; land use, transportation, and environmental applications of GIS
  • Devon Peña
  • Professor
  • Anthropology and Chicano Studies
  • Agroecology; environmental justice; environmental history; ecological politics, social movements, transborder communities, and transnationalism; complexity theory in ecosystem sciences; geographic focus includes U.S.-Mexico border region, Chiapas, the Upper Rio Grande watershed (New Mexico and Colorado), and Taiwan
  • Tom Quinn
  • Professor
  • Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
  • Behavior, ecology and evolution of fishes, particularly salmon and trout; salmon migration; spawning behavior; differentiation of populations in life history traits; effects of forest practices on fish populations
  • Jeffrey Richey
  • Professor
  • Oceanography
  • Aquatic and drainage basin biogeochemistry; remote sensing of land use changes on regional-scale hydrological and chemical dynamics; Amazon River basin
  • Nancy Rottle
    Associate Professor
    Department of Landscape Architecture Director
    Green Futures Research and Design Lab Adjunct Associate Professor
    Department of Urban Planning and Design
    Adjunct Associate Professor
    Department of Architecture
    College of Built Environments
  • Clare Ryan
  • Associate Professor
  • Forest Resources
  • Natural resource policy and administration; environmental conflict management; water resource policy
  • Tom Sibley
  • Associate Professor
  • Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
  • National Marine Fisheries Service
  • Lake and stream restoration
  • Charles "Si" Simenstad
  • Research Professor and Coordinator, Wetland Ecosystem Team
  • Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
  • Estuarine and nearshore marine ecology; food web structure; juvenile salmon ecology and habitat; ecosystem restoration planning and assessment
  • Anne C. Steinemann
  • Professor
  • Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Professor
  • School of Public Affairs
  • Water resources and environmental management; drought prediction, preparedness, and mitigation; climate variability and climate change adaptation; forecasts for water and energy planning; pollutant exposures and health effects; emerging contaminants in water supplies; environmental policy, regulation, and impact assessment; public sector economics and environmental valuation; sustainability
  • David Stensel
  • Professor
  • Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Biological nutrient removal; oxygen transfer and substrate; utilization in fixed film systems; biodegradation of toxic pollutants; biofilters for toxic gas treatment
  • Christian E. Torgersen
    Research Landscape Ecologist
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Assistant Professor
    Forest Resources
    Landscape ecology; aquatic ecology; remote sensing; spatial analysis

  • Kristiina Vogt
  • Professor
  • Forest Resources
  • Ecosystem management; linking social and natural science; reserves; conservation
  • Stephen West
  • Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
  • Forest Resources
  • Vertebrate ecology and conservation, wildlife ecology
  • Jan Whittington
    Assistant Professor
    Urban Design and Planning
    College of Built Environments
    Public and private infrastructure planning, finance and project delivery; transaction cost economics of public goods; health effects of neurotoxins in water and other media, including lead in municipal water systems; gene-environment interaction in autism and other disorders.
  • Robert Wissmar
  • Research Professor
  • Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
  • Disturbance regimes and recovery patterns in land-water interfaces and watersheds
  • Steve Wondzell
  • Research Aquatic Ecologist
  • Olympia Forestry Sciences Laboratory
  • Stream channel morphology; hyporheic zones in mountain stream networks; influence of hyporheic exchange flows on nitrogen cycling in small forested streams