Faculty

Faculty affiliated with the Center represent many units throughout the university, and bring vital interdisciplinary expertise to solving water problems.

  • Anne C. Steinemann
  • Water Center Director
  • Professor
  • Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Professor
  • School of Public Affairs
  • Water resources and environmental management; drought prediction, preparedness, and mitigation; climate variability and climate change adaptation; forecasts for water and energy planning; pollutant exposures and health effects; emerging contaminants in water supplies; environmental policy, regulation, and impact assessment; public sector economics and environmental valuation; sustainability
  • Jim Agee
  • Professor
  • Forest Resources
  • Forest and fire ecology; fire effects and fire history particularly in forests of the western United States
  • Marina Alberti
  • Associate Professor
  • Department of Urban Design and Planning
  • Land use change effects on the biophysical structure and ecosystem dynamics in the Puget Sound region; measures of urban environmental performance that can be used to monitor progress and inform policy-making
  • Bob Bilby
  • Affiliate Professor
  • Weyerhaeuser
  • Nutrient and organic matter dynamics in stream ecosystems; production, trophic relationships, population dynamics, and community interaction of stream-dwelling fishes; effects of large woody debris on stream structure and function; effects of forest practices on streams and ecology of riparian systems
  • Pete Bisson
  • Affiliate Professor
  • USDA Forest Service
  • Process of fish habitat formation in streams; limiting factors of trout and salmon production; effects of land use practices on stream ecosystems; zoogeography of freshwater fishes
  • Susan Bolton
  • Professor
  • Forest Resources
  • Surface water hydrology; watershed management; land-water interactions; stream restoration, sustainable development, and ecological engineering
  • Derek Booth
  • Research Professor
  • Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Analysis of consequences of geologic processes and materials on land-use—stream channels, river systems, hillslope stability, erosion, and groundwater; measurement and prediction of sediment transport in streams; development and execution of monitoring programs; prediction of future hazards to human activity and resources as a result of ongoing urban development
  • Mike Brett
  • Associate Professor
  • Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Limnology; nutrients and nutrition in lakes; water quality; food webs
  • Stephen Burges
  • Professor
  • Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Stream temperatures
  • Loveday Conquest
  • Professor
  • Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
  • Statistical methods for use in forestry/fisheries management, environmental pollution problems; biological monitoring, and watershed management; teaching courses in statistical methods, design; consultant training for students in renewable resource management
  • Bob Edmonds
  • Professor and Associate Dean
  • Forest Resources
  • Forest soil microbiology; biology of forest diseases; watershed processes, stream chemistry; influence of forest management practices
  • Kern Ewing
  • Associate Professor
  • Forest Resources
  • Restoration of western U.S. ecosystem types, including freshwater wetlands, coastal wetlands, prairie, shrub-steppe, arid lands, oak woodlands, montane, and thornscrub vegetation types
  • Robert Gara
  • Professor
  • Forest Resources
  • Forest entomology; international forestry; aquatic entomology; Chilean forest insects
  • Alex Horner-Devine
  • Assistant Professor
  • Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Environmental fluid mechanics; coastal oceanography and geophysical fluid dynamics; estuaries and river plumes; sediment transport; fish passage
  • Jim Karr
  • Emeritus Professor
  • Aquatic and Fishery Sciences and Zoology
  • Tropical forest ecology; aquatic ecology; watershed management; ecology of fish and invertebrates in streams; influence of human-induced disturbances on biological systems using the index of biotic integrity (IBI) as a biologically based approach to evaluate the condition of living systems
  • Rick Keil
  • Associate Professor
  • School of Oceanography
  • Application of organic geochemistry to emerging environmental issues such as climate change and pollutant distributions and sinks in marine systems
  • Peter Kiffney
  • Affiliate Professor
  • National Marine Fisheries Service
  • Abiotic and biotic controls of stream food webs in the Pacific Northwest; light regime and riparian vegetation influences on stream productivity and food web dynamics
  • Dennis P. Lettenmaier
  • Professor
  • Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Hydrologic model development and application; prediction of hydrologic impacts of climate and land use change; continental and global hydrologic modeling and prediction; seasonal to interannual hydrologic forecasting; spatially distributed hydrologic modeling, data assimilation, arctic hydrology
  • Dave Montgomery
  • Professor
  • Earth and Space Sciences
  • Director
  • Quaternary Research Center
  • Geomorphology of tectonically active landscapes; geomorphic processes; impacts of natural and anthropogenic disturbance; development of practical methods for minimizing land use disturbance
  • Robert J. Naiman
  • Professor
  • College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences
  • Structure and dynamics of stream ecosystems; riparian vegetation; the role of large animals in influencing ecosystem dynamics; riparian systems; interactions between salmon, brown bear, and riparian vegetation; environmental consequences of artificially changing water regimes
  • Timothy Nyerges
  • Professor
  • Geography
  • Urban sustainability modeling and collaborative decision support; GIS for risk evaluation and decision analysis; land use, transportation, and environmental applications of GIS
  • Devon Peña
  • Professor
  • Anthropology and Chicano Studies
  • Agroecology; environmental justice; environmental history; ecological politics, social movements, transborder communities, and transnationalism; complexity theory in ecosystem sciences; geographic focus includes U.S.-Mexico border region, Chiapas, the Upper Rio Grande watershed (New Mexico and Colorado), and Taiwan
  • Tom Quinn
  • Professor
  • Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
  • Behavior, ecology and evolution of fishes, particularly salmon and trout; salmon migration; spawning behavior; differentiation of populations in life history traits; effects of forest practices on fish populations
  • Jeffrey Richey
  • Professor
  • Oceanography
  • Aquatic and drainage basin biogeochemistry; remote sensing of land use changes on regional-scale hydrological and chemical dynamics; Amazon River basin
  • Clare Ryan
  • Associate Professor
  • Forest Resources
  • Natural resource policy and administration; environmental conflict management; water resource policy
  • Tom Sibley
  • Associate Professor
  • Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
  • National Marine Fisheries Service
  • Lake and stream restoration
  • Charles "Si" Simenstad
  • Research Professor and Coordinator, Wetland Ecosystem Team
  • Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
  • Estuarine and nearshore marine ecology; food web structure; juvenile salmon ecology and habitat; ecosystem restoration planning and assessment
  • David Stensel
  • Professor
  • Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Biological nutrient removal; oxygen transfer and substrate; utilization in fixed film systems; biodegradation of toxic pollutants; biofilters for toxic gas treatment
  • Kristiina Vogt
  • Professor
  • Forest Resources
  • Ecosystem management; linking social and natural science; reserves; conservation
  • Stephen West
  • Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
  • Forest Resources
  • Vertebrate ecology and conservation, wildlife ecology
  • Robert Wissmar
  • Research Professor
  • Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
  • Disturbance regimes and recovery patterns in land-water interfaces and watersheds
  • Steve Wondzell
  • Research Aquatic Ecologist
  • Olympia Forestry Sciences Laboratory
  • Stream channel morphology; hyporheic zones in mountain stream networks; influence of hyporheic exchange flows on nitrogen cycling in small forested streams