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Claire Welty, Director, Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education and Professor of Chemical, Biochemical, and Environmental Engineering at UMBC, provides organization and leadership of the project. She will ensure that project goals are met and communication is facilitated. She will also be responsible for (1) co-supervision (with J. Moore) of groundwater flow and geochemical reactive transport modeling to be carried out by one PhD student and one postdoc; and (2) supervision of a full-time project field technician; (3) overseeing collection and analysis of Dead Run water quality samples; and (4) overseeing analysis of water isotope samples to be submitted to UMBC by all sites.

Marika Avkopashvilli is a graduate student at University of Pittsburgh working with Dan Bain on trace metal geochemistry.

Katherine Altamirano is a M.S. student in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management at Pennsylvania State University, working with Jon Duncan.

Vignesh Arunkumar is an undergraduate Environmental Science student at University of Pittsburgh working with Dan Bain.

Daniel Bain, Associate Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, Department of Geology and Planetary Science will be responsible for (1) supervision of inter-city synthesis across the Philadelphia to Raleigh transect, including the collection, organization, and analysis of basic geographic data; (2) Analysis of associations between specific human surface patterns in the urban environment (build out age, infrastructure density) and CZ processes; (3) collection and analysis of surface soil samples at all of the study watersheds; and (4) supervision of ICP-MS analyses of cations and trace metals and nitrate isotopes for all water samples collected as part of biweekly and synoptic sampling.

Claire Burns is an undergraduate student in Economics and Environmental Science at University of Pittsburgh working with Dan Bain.

Alan R. Berkowitz, Head of Education at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, will oversee the education and outreach component of the project. He has 35 years of experience in environmental science curriculum and professional development, and citizen science.

Jeffrey G. Chanat, Hydrologist with the USGS Virginia and West Virginia Water Science Center in Richmond, VA, has expertise on drivers of water quality in urban watersheds. He will serve as co-point of contact for the USGS-instrumented sites in Difficult Run, Northern Virginia and will collaborate with the other CZ nodes on comparative studies.

Jason Chase is a MS student in Environmental Science at UMBC working with Andy Miller on sediment budgets in Dead Run.

Jonathan M. Duncan, Assistant Professor of Hydrology, Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, Pennsylvania State University, has expertise on streamflow generation and water quality genesis at watershed scales. He will be responsible for conducting experiments on soil gas sampling and evaluation of soil cores for N transformation chemistry.

Kyle Farrington is a MS student in Environmental Science at Towson University working with Joel Moore.

Peter Groffman, Professor, CUNY Advanced Science Research Center at the Graduate Center and Brooklyn College Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Senior Research Fellow at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, will be responsible for analysis of dissolved carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane and dinitrogen:argon in stream and groundwater samples. He will collaborate with Jon Duncan in analysis of nitrogen cycle process measurements. He will provide linkage to long-term stream chemistry and permanent plot data collection that he oversees as part of the National Science Foundation funded urban Long Term Ecological Research project, the Baltimore Ecosystem Study.

Caerwyn Hartten is an undergraduate student in Geology at University of Maryland, College Park, working with Karen Prestegaard.

Madeline Hice is an undergraduate student in Environmental Science at University of Pittsburgh working with Dan Bain.

Kristina Hopkins, Research Physical Scientist, USGS South Atlantic Water Science Center, Raleigh, NC, has expertise on how intensity and type of development impacts urban water quality and quantity. She will serve as point of contact for the USGS site Swift Creek, Raleigh NC and will collaborate with the other CZ sites on comparative studies.

Memphis Hill is a graduate student at University of Pittsburgh working with Dan Bain on trace metal microbial geochemistry.

Berit Hudson-Rasmussen is a staff research assistant at University of Maryland, College Park working with Mong-Han Huang on geophysic measurements across the CZ field sites.

Mong-Han Huang, Assistant Professor, Department of Geology, University of Maryland, College Park, has expertise on using geodesy and seismology to study crustal deformation, as applied to many case studies including subsurface characterization. He will lead the effort on using geophysical techniques to characterize the subsurface including determination of the location of the saprolite-bedrock interface at the CZ sites.

Ashleigh Kirker is a PhD student in Geosciences at Temple University working with Laura Toran.

John Jastram, Hydrologist and Program Development Specialist, USGS Virginia and West Virginia Water Science Center, Richmond, VA has expertise on using continuous water-quality monitoring to improve nutrient and sediment load estimation in urban watersheds. He will serve as co-point of contact for the USGS-instrumented sites in Difficult Run, Northern Virginia and will collaborate with the other CZ nodes on comparative studies.

John Lagrosa, Environmental Data Manager at UMBC/CUERE, has expertise in GIS and database management. He will be responsible for organizing, communicating, posting, and archiving all project data. He will also carry out or supervise student staff in conducting any GIS work needed by project personnel.

Mary McWilliams is a full-time field research assistant for the project, based at UMBC. She holds a B.S. and M.S. in Environmental Science from Towson University.

Bojan Milinic is a MS student in Geology at Temple University working with Laura Toran.

Andrew Miller, Professor in the Department of Geography & Environmental Systems at UMBC, has expertise on surface-water hydrology and geomorphology of the urban landscape. He will be responsible for analysis of sediment loads from turbidity and suspended sediment measurements and will coordinate with investigators working with sediment data from other sites to carry out cross-site comparisons in the context of gradients of urbanization, landscape position, and climate. He will also serve as the co-point of contact for Dead Run, the Baltimore CZ site.

Joel Moore, Associate Professor of Geosciences in the Department of Physics, Astronomy, and Geosciences at Towson University serves as Co-Director of the project, sharing project management responsibilities with C. Welty. He also will contribute technical expertise on geochemical weathering at plot and watershed scales and modeling of weathering rates and processes using CrunchFlow. He will co-advise a postdoctoral associate (funded through UMBC’s budget) with C. Welty to carry out project hydrologic and geochemical modeling. He will also be responsible for overseeing analysis of water samples from the CZ sites where sampling is funded by this grant (Philadelphia, Baltimore, DC/NW Branch Anacostia) for anions, total nitrogen & carbon, and alkalinity as well as chemical (X-ray fluorescence) and mineralogical (X-ray diffraction) analysis of soil/saprolite soil cores.

Emily O’Donnell is an undergraduate student in Geology at Towson University, assisting Joel Moore with water quality analysis.

Karen Prestegaard, Associate Professor in the Department of Geology at the University of Maryland, College Park, has expertise on urban sediment transport and depositional processes. She will serve as the point of contact for the NW Branch Anacostia CZ site, and will be responsible for carrying out water quality sampling at that site. She will work closely with M-H Huang in implementing the geophysical characterization of NW Branch and the other CZ cluster sites.

Maryam Rishehri is a PhD student in Environmental Engineering at UMBC working with Claire Welty and Joel Moore on modeling the CZ field sites.

Nathan Schollaert is an undergraduate student in Geology at University of Pittsburgh working with Dan Bain.

Laura Toran, Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at Temple University, is a hydrogeologist with expertise in urban hydrology. She will serve as the point of contact for the Philadelphia CZ site, Pennypack Creek, and will be responsible for carrying out water quality and suspended sediment sampling at that site. She will host visiting teams carrying out geophysical analysis and core sampling.

Rumya Ravi is a graduate student in Geology at University of Maryland, College Park working with Karen Prestegaard.

Mitchell Richards is an undergraduate student at UMBC majoring in Chemical Engineering in the Environmental Engineering and Sustainability track and minoring in Environmental Science. He is assisting Mary McWilliams and Claire Welty with water quality sampling and processing, and augering of soil/saprolite cores. Mitchell joined the team in summer 2021.

Samantha Volz is research staff member at University of Maryland, College Park, having double majored in Atmospheric Science and Geology. She is assisting Karen Prestegaard with water quality and sediment sampling and processing for the Anacostia sites.

Anna Wagner is a MS student in Geology at University of Maryland, College Park, working with Mong-Han Huang and Karen Prestegaard on geophysical measurements and interpretation.

CZ Project Alumni
Hibba Ata is an undergraduate student at UMBC majoring in Chemical Engineering in the Environmental Engineering and Sustainability track. She assisted Claire Welty with processing water quality samples from the Baltimore sites in 2020-21.

Bess Caplan, was BES Education Coordinator for 12 years, working for A. Berkowitz locally in Baltimore. She spent a portion of her time working on the CZ project on education and outreach.

Edward Doheny, Surface Water Specialist, USGS MD-DE-DC Water Science Center, was the liaison between UMBC and USGS to oversee the USGS technician work on maintaining the Dead Run stream gages and on data publication. Ed retired from USGS in October 2021.

Kathleen Hohweiler was an undergraduate student in Geology at Towson University working with Joel Moore. She graduated in 2021 went on to Virginia Tech to start a masters in Biological Systems Engineering.

Rachel Pendrak was an undergraduate student in Environmental Science at Temple University, graduating in 2021. She assisted Laura Toran with water quality sampling and processing for the Philadelphia sites in 2020-21.

Stacy Villaneuva is an undergraduate student at UMBC majoring in Chemical Engineering, assisted Claire Welty with processing water quality samples from the Baltimore sites. She worked on the CZ project in 2020-21.

Myriah Wadley was a MS student at Penn State working with Jon Duncan. She graduated in 2021.