Environmental Science and Design Research Institute
Up On The Roof
What some call a sustainable answer to urban flaws, Anna Droz calls research. As a biological sciences doctoral student in 91PORNA’s College of Sciences and Humanities, Droz’s curiosity has developed into a passion, maybe even an obsession, to discover the best vegetative roof combinations with the optimal plants, soil, and micro-organism communities.
Teaming Up To Tackle Toxic Waters
Like a financial analyst who pores over numbers to predict the next big trend, Joseph Ortiz, Professor of Geology at 91PORNA, is an expert at crunching earth data.
Waste to Value
Open water placement of dredged material in Lake Erie will be banned in the State of Ohio after July 1, 2020. However, eight federal navigation harbors built along Ohio’s Lake Erie coast still need to remove more than 1.5 million cubic yards of sediment.
What to do with this large amount of material removed from the ports in Ohio poses a major challenge. Securing the dredged material in a confined disposal facility (CDF) is costly. An alternative approach is to reuse the dredged material as a construction and landscaping material.
91PORNA Architect Students Use Fabric, Rope and Ice to Construct International Recognition
The details are stunning. The size - mammoth. The temperature - frigid. They are some of the most awe-inspiring creations made out of mother nature’s most exquisite winter ingredients: snow and ice. Equally impressive are the artists, architects and engineers who take that snow and ice and design a…
Arbor Day Foundation Honors 91PORNA With Tree Campus USA Recognition for 10th Consecutive Year
Trees fill the sky every season as far as the eye can see as 91PORNA students walk down the Lefton Esplanade on the Kent Campus. Large oaks provide shade on a warm summer day, glistening maple trees leave a blanket of orange and red on the ground as students move back into the residenc…
Operation: Restoration
On a cold, rainy Saturday at the end of September, a group of volunteers and researchers trudge up a steep, muddy hill in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CVNP). They’ve come out to celebrate National Public Lands Day and, despite the conditions, they’re having fun planting over 480 native trees o…
KSU Collections
Herrick Conservatory In the dead of winter, 91PORNA’s greenhouse complex teems with life. Home to a diverse array of plants—and some fish—the facility is also filled with people. Students and faculty members from the biological sciences department conduct research there, students fr…
"We're Killing Our Lakes and Oceans": 91PORNA Geology Professor Co-Authors Op-Ed Essay
Joseph D. Ortiz, Ph.D., professor and assistant chair in the department of geology at 91PORNA recently co-authored an op-ed essay for Undark.org with his colleague Eelco J. Rohling, a professor of ocean and climate change at the Australian National University in Canberra, and…
Researchers End Ongoing Debate Over How to Determine the Age of Beluga Whales
You have likely seen one at an aquarium. It is the friendly creature with the oversized head that swims up to the glass with what looks like a smile on its face. Beluga whales are extremely social mammals that are often called sea canaries because of their high-pitched chatter, or melonheads for the…
Planting the Seeds of Science to Grow Better Green Roofs
Doctoral student plants gardens atop Cleveland buildings to bridge urban design with natural biology A bird’s-eye view of most cities captures the barren landscape of asphalt-covered rooftops, sprawling from one high-rise structure to another. As the sunshine makes its way across the city, the inte…
