Dr. Jan Leach’s research focus is plant health. Specifically, she studies how plants defend themselves from pathogenic microorganisms, how climate change impacts plant disease and productivity, and how microbiomes of insects influence the insects’ aggressiveness to plants.

The Bradley Research Group focuses on using advanced system design tools with experimental validation to advance the state of the art in practical, demonstrable systems. This group has constructed an active research program at the nexus of the fields of industrial engineering, energy systems and life cycle assessment (LCA).

Dr. Svetlana Olbina’s research in energy area relates to the integration of building systems to achieve energy-efficient/high performance buildings. She explores how utilization of day lighting in buildings as well as building envelopes (particularly shading devices) can provide energy savings.

The CSU Photovoltaics Laboratory, lead by Professor Jim Sites, focuses on polycrystalline thin-film solar cells, primarily CdTe-based cells fabricated at CSU.  Areas of particular interest are the relationship of electronic band structure to photovoltaic efficiency, the effect of defects at interfaces and grain boundaries, and the optics of multilayer solar cells.

Researchers in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering have been engaged in producing fuels and chemicals from biomass since the Department’s inception more than 40 years ago. The primary focus has been on biological conversions of lignocellulosic and algal biomass, and on metabolic engineering of microorganisms to produce new molecules from renewable sugars.

The Institute for the Built Environment (IBE) is a trans-disciplinary center based at CSU that is on a mission is to advance the development of healthy, thriving built environments.  IBE focuses their research and services on the human dimensions of energy and sustainability through the social sciences, group facilitation and strategic planning, and through the integrative design process.

The Miyake Group, lead by Dr. Garret Miyake, uses light to drive chemical transformations under mild conditions for the synthesis of polymers and small molecules. They are focused on developing polymeric photonic crystal that can selectively reflect light, including IR radiation, to prevent thermalization in warm urban environments.

The Neilson Lab research revolves around understanding and controlling the formation of materials, their structure and their properties, i.e., materials design and synthesis.  Our focus is on materials with relevance in energy applications, such as harvest, conversion, and storage.

The Von Fischer Lab studies processes on the land surface that give the atmosphere its greenhouse gas composition.  An important area of this research investigates the emission of methane from the natural gas supply chain.  Members of this lab develop and apply new technologies and data analytics that reveal how much methane is leaking, and we suggest efficient ways to reduce overall system emissions.