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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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