Research
Project Highlights
Turning A Desert Shrub Into Rubber
Department Chair Kim Ogden is leading $70 million, five-year project to turn guayule, a hardy desert shrub, into an alternative source of natural rubber.
"We want to use less water, install irrigation systems to avoid flood irrigation, use less fertilizer and educate the growers. If you’re looking at a big-system, life-cycle assessment, this is going to cut down on greenhouse gases."
Finding Clues in Atmospheric Layers
Professor Armin Sorooshian and University Distinguished Scholar contributes to research designed to improve understanding of conditions such as air pollution.
"The selection of our project is a testament to the University of Arizona's role as a harmonizer between several institutions focusing on one of the most pressing issues impacting this planet: climate change."
Achilli Leads $4M Sustainable Water Use Consortium
Associate professor Andrea Achilli is the principal investigator on a new project the brings the University of Arizona together with the University of Southern California and the University of Nevada, Reno to improve water security in the southwestern United States.
"If we really want to enable water reuse, we need to transform the systems from centralized – like we've been doing for the past 100 years – into decentralized, autonomous systems."
Water for Rural Communities
Assistant professor Vicky Karanikola is developing water purification systems for groundwater high in salinity and contaminated with metals, to benefit Indigenous Communities.
"We are trying to figure out a way to close the gap between cutting-edge research and possible engineering applications in communities who very often unfortunately experience a delay in innovative information sharing."
Research Centers and Facilities
CHEE faculty are leaders in the following centers:
- Aerosol Cloud meTeorology Interactions oVer the western ATlantic Experiment (ACTIVATE)
- Arizona Institute for Resilient Environments and Societies (AIRES)
- BIO5 Institute
- Center for Environmentally Sustainable Mining
- Engineering Research Center for Environmentally Benign Semiconductor Manufacturing
- Institute for Energy Solutions (IES)
- Sustainable Bioeconomy for Arid Regions Center
- Water & Energy Sustainable Technology Center
- Water Resources Research Center
See UA College of Engineering-affiliated Research Centers and Institutes.