Meet the Task Force

Marilyn Fogel - Founder

Distinguished Professor Emerita of Geoecology

UCR Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences

Marilyn L. Fogel received her B. S. in Biology from Penn State and a Ph.D. in Botany and Marine Science from the University of Texas at Austin. Fogel worked at the Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Geophysical Laboratory as a Senior Scientist and Staff Member for over 35 years. Distinguished Professor Fogel joined UC Riverside in the Earth and Planetary Sciences department in 2016 and was the Director of EDGE (Environmental Dynamics and Geo-Ecology) Institute until her retirement in June 2020. Her research uses a wide range of expertise --including biology, chemistry, geology and astrobiology--to study distinctive isotopes of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen to trace various phenomena tied to modern and fossilized ecosystems. Marilyn is a Fellow of the Geochemical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union and a Fulbright Scholar. She served as Program Director in Geobiology and Low Temperature Geochemistry with the National Science Foundation. In 2014, she received the Alfred Treibs Medal in Organic Geochemistry for lifetime achievement in the field. She was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2019.

Will Porter - Director

Assistant Professor of Atmospheric Dynamics and Modeling

UCR Department of Environmental Science

william.porter@ucr.edu

William C. Porter is an Assistant Professor of Atmospheric Dynamics and Modeling in the Department of Environmental Sciences at UC Riverside. Dr. Porter uses numerical and statistical modeling tools to investigate the causes and consequences of air pollution, with a focus on the impacts of policy and chemistry/climate feedbacks. Dr. Porter received his PhD in Physics at Portland State University before working as a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT. As a member of UCR’s BREATHE center, Dr. Porter helps to elucidate the sources, transport patterns, and human health impacts of dust around the shrinking Salton Sea, and to equip policymakers and stakeholders with the data and forecasts necessary to make informed decisions and protect local communities.

Emma Aronson - Associate Director

Associate Professor of Environmental Microbiology

UCR Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology

emma.aronson@ucr.edu

Emma Aronson is an Associate Professor of Environmental Microbiology in the Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology at UC Riverside, who has published more than 30 research papers. As a member both of the UCR Center for Conservation Biology, and the BREATHE Center, Dr. Aronson’s expertise is in the role of the soil microbial community in ecosystem functions, the dispersal of microorganisms via wind and dust, and the impact of dust microorganisms on human health. She received her PhD in Biology with a concentration in Ecology and Evolution from the University of Pennsylvania, supported by a Predoctoral Fellowship from NASA, and her BSc in Environmental Sciences from McGill University. Prior to joining the faculty at UCR, she was a NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Irvine. She currently leads a Thematic Cluster as part of the new NSF Critical Zone Cluster Network.

Timothy Lyons - Associate Director

Distinguished Professor of Biogeochemistry

UCR Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences

timothy.lyons@ucr.edu

Timothy W. Lyons is a Distinguished Professor of Biogeochemistry in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Director of the Alternative Earths Astrobiology Center at the University of California, Riverside. Lyons currently leads the ‘Alternative Earths’ team of the NASA Astrobiology Institute. He is a fellow of the Geological Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Geochemical Society, the European Association of Geochemistry, and the American Geophysical Union. He has been honored with visiting professorships throughout the world and is an Honorary Professor at the University of St. Andrews. The UCR Academic Senate named him the 2018 Faculty Research Lecturer. Many of his 50 graduate students and postdocs have gone on to professorships around the world. His record of professional service includes a dozen editorial positions and numerous panels and advisory boards. He holds a B.S. from the Colorado School of Mines, M.S. from the University of Arizona, and M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Yale University. His primary research interests include geobiology, biogeochemistry, trace metal and isotope cycles and ecological relationships, and co-evolving environments and life.

Hoori Ajami - Senior Member

Associate Professor of Ground Water Hydrology

UCR School of Environmental Science

hoori.ajami@ucr.edu

Hoori Ajami is an Associate Professor of Groundwater Hydrology in the Department of Environmental Sciences at UC Riverside. Dr. Ajami’s expertise is in surface water- groundwater interactions, climate change impact assessment, hydrologic modeling, and spatial analysis, and remote sensing. She received her PhD in Hydrology from University of Arizona and her BSc and MSc in Natural Resources Engineering (Environmental Sciences) from Isfahan University of Technology and Tehran University, respectively. Prior to joining UCR, she was a postdoctoral fellow with the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training in Australia and a Senior Research Associate in the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering at University of New South Wales Australia. She is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER award in Hydrologic Sciences.

Roya Bahreini - Senior Member

Professor of Atmospheric Science

UCR Department of Environmental Sciences

roya.bahreini@ucr.edu

Roya Bahreini is an Associate Professor of Atmospheric Science in the Department of Environmental Sciences at University of California, Riverside. She specializes in airborne, ground-based, and laboratory measurements of aerosol composition and microphysical properties to understand aerosol sources and formation process, influence on air quality, and direct- and indirect-effects on climate. Dr. Bahreini received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Maryland, College Park (1999), and M.S. (2003) and Ph.D. (2005) degrees in Environmental Science and Engineering from California Institute of Technology. Before joining UC- Riverside in 2012, she was a CIRES Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Colorado- Boulder (2005-2007), a Research Scientist at CIRES and NOAA- ESRL (2007-2012), and University of Denver (2012). She is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER award, the Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers award (2014), as well as The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds award (2014). In 2019-2020, She served on the Owens Lake Scientific Advisory Panel by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Wilfred Elders - Senior Member

Professor Emeritus of Geology

UCR Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences

wilfred.elders@ucr.edu

Wilfred A. Elders is a Professor Emeritus of Geology in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of California Riverside. He was educated at King’s College, University of Durham, England, and the University of Oslo, Norway. He has taught at the University of Chicago (1961-1969), and the University of California, Riverside, (1969-2000). His expertise is the investigation of geothermal resources and he has carried out research on this topic in California, Mexico, Iceland, New Zealand, and Japan, focusing on improving the economics of geothermal energy by producing deeper and hotter resources. Until his retirement he directed the Geothermal Resources Program at UCR and supervised numerous graduate students. From 1983-1988 he was the Chief Scientist of the Salton Sea Scientific Drilling Project, that drilled a 3.1 km deep borehole that reached temperatures of 365oC. In Iceland from 2005-2020 he was the Co-Chief Scientist and Co- Principal Investigator of the Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP), a long term, international, drilling project aimed at exploring for deep, supercritical, geothermal fluids. In 2016-7 the IDDP drilled its second well to a depth of 4.5 km, where it encountered supercritical conditions at >620 oC, on the Reykjanes Peninsula in SW Iceland. In 2016 Dr. Elders received the Pioneer Award of the Geothermal Resources Council and in 2017 he received a Special Achievement Award from the Geothermal Association of Mexico.

David Lo - Senior Member

Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Science

UCR School of Medicine

david.lo@ucr.edu

David D. Lo, MD PhD, is Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Sciences in the UCR School of Medicine, where he is also Senior Associate Dean for Research. He has over 35 years experience in molecular and cellular immunology with 162 research publications, and several years executive leadership in biotechnology. He was an awardee of the first round of Grand Challenges in Global Health from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He is founding Director of the BREATHE Center (Bridging Regional Ecology, Aerosolized Toxins, and Health Effects; http://breathe.ucr.edu) which focuses on air quality and health effects, and is co-Director of the Center for Health Disparities Research at UCR, an NIH-funded center supporting training and research on health disparities and community engagement.

Michael McKibben - Senior Member

Professor Emeritus of Geology

UCR Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences

michael.mckibben@ucr.edu

Michael A. McKibben, Ph.D. is a geochemist and economic geologist at U. C. Riverside who studies natural processes responsible for metal and sulfur transport in modern and ancient hydrothermal and volcanic systems. He first visited the Salton Sea geothermal field as a high school freshman in the late 1960s and has since published extensively on geologic and geochemical aspects of that geothermal area. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from U. C. Riverside in 1976 and 1979 and his Ph.D. degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1984. He received the Waldemar Lindgren award for excellence in research from the Society of Economic Geologists in 1989 and has served on their Executive Council and on the Editorial Board of their journal Economic Geology. He has also served on the Editorial Board of the Geochemical Society’s journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. From 2009- 2018 he was Divisional Dean of Student Academic Affairs for the science college at U. C. Riverside, overseeing 6,000 students in thirteen majors. Presently he serves as Chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at U. C. Riverside.

Arun Raju- Senior Member

Director of the Sustainable Fuels Initiative

UCR Center for Environmental Research & Technology

arun.raju@ucr.edu

Arun Raju, PhD is currently Director of the Center for Renewable Natural gas (CRNG) at CE-CERT focuses on renewable fuels, energy systems analysis including techno-economic and life cycle analysis, CO2 utilization, and optimization of energy conversion pathways. He has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from UC Riverside with a focus on gasification and related processes. He has experience in research related to synthetic fuels and chemicals production, and power generation via thermochemical pathways, including waste to energy processes. Before joining CE-CERT, Arun was the Director of Research at Viresco Energy, LLC and later served as the Director of Technology Development at Combustion Associates, Inc.

Kurt Schwabe- Senior Member

Professor of Environmental Economics and Policy

Associate Dean and Chair, UCR School of Public Policy

kurt.schwabe@ucr.edu

Kurt A. Schwabe, PhD is a Professor of Environmental Economics and Policy, and Associate Dean, in the School of Public Policy at UC Riverside. Dr. Schwabe’s research focuses on economic issues associated with water use, agricultural production, urban water conservation, ecosystem services, and environmental regulation. His papers have appeared in wide range of peer-reviewed publications, including Nature Sustainability, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Land Economics, and the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, and is co-editor of two recent books on water titled, Drought in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions: A Multi-Disciplinary and Cross-Country Perspective, and The Handbook of Water Economics. Dr. Schwabe received a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics at Macalester College, an M.S. in Economics at Duke University, and a Ph.D. in Economics at the North Carolina State University. Dr. Schwabe also holds appointments as an Adjunct Policy Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California’s Water Policy Center, and as an Adjunct Professor in the Center for Global Food and Resources at the University of Adelaide in Australia.

Charles Diamond - Associate Member

Postdoctoral Scholar and Academic Coordinator

UCR Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences

charles.diamond@ucr.edu

Charles Diamond is a Postdoctoral Scholar and Academic Coordinator in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, working under the supervision of Timothy Lyons. He received his B.S. in Earth Sciences from Ohio State University and his Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from the University of California, Riverside. His research interests extend to the coevolution of life and environmental conditions throughout Earth History. His work primarily focuses on reconstruction of past oceanic and atmospheric conditions based on the chemistry of sediments deposited at the time, largely through the interpretation of variations in concentration and isotopic ratio of transition metals. The unique sulfur chemistry of the Salton Sea and its implications for metal enrichment in sediments are topics of ongoing research for Dr. Diamond, where he has been actively involved in field sampling since 2020.

Caroline Hung - Associate Member

PhD Candidate in Biogeochemistry

UCR Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences

caroline.hung@email.ucr.edu

Caroline Hung is a graduate student in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences PhD program. She received her B.A. in Geosciences and Biology from Williams College (2019). She is advised by Professor Timothy Lyons and specializes in trace elements redox chemistry and cycling in water columns and bottom sediments. Caroline will lead the field and lab efforts on the Salton Sea to produce data and interpretations for her doctoral thesis.

Legislative and Support Team

Kathleen Eiler

Kathleen (Kathy) Eiler is Director of Federal Relations at the University of California, Riverside where she has front-line responsibility for planning, organizing, and executing federal government relations for the University of California, Riverside. Serving as the campus federal liaison, Kathy is responsible for advising the Chancellor and other members of university leadership on campus positions and strategies related to federal legislative matters and funding opportunities. She serves as the campus representative to the executive branch, federal elected officials, federal government agencies and their staff and manages the implementation of the campus federal relations program designed to cultivate and inform elected officials at all levels, including developing programs to identify and mobilize key constituencies in support of University initiatives and research priorities.

Elizabeth Romero

Elizabeth Romero serves as the Assistant Vice Chancellor of Governmental & Community Relations at the University of California Riverside. As the chief government and community relations officer, Elizabeth advocates and advances support for public higher education. UCR is the only UC located in Inland Southern California and is widely recognized as one of the most ethnically diverse research universities in the nation. Prior to joining UC Riverside, Elizabeth served as the Director of Community and Government Relations for Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest in Riverside and Imperial Counties. Elizabeth also managed the Building Healthy Communities Initiative funded by The California Endowment and has worked for Desert Arc, University Center for Developmental Disabilities and served as a Legislative Assistant to the late Riverside County Fourth District Supervisor Roy Wilson and Supervisor John J. Benoit. In 2006, Elizabeth was first elected to the Coachella Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees at the age of 23. Currently, Elizabeth serves as an elected member of the Riverside County Board of Education representing Coachella Valley, Desert Center, Desert Sands, Palm Springs and Palo Verde Unified School Districts.

Science to Policy Advisors

Doug Brown - Associate Director, Center for Science to Policy

Susan Hackwood - Director, Center for Science to Policy

Stephanie Piper - Student Cabinet Member, Center for Science to Policy

Administrative and Editorial Support Staff

Theresa Kane - Administrative Support * Sarah Simpson - Editorial & Design Services * Jeanette Westbrook - Administrative Support