The Agrivoltaics VIP team focuses on sustainable solutions for food, energy, and water systems by exploring the interdisciplinary field of agrivoltaics. Students tackle questions related to climate impact on crops, water savings, crop suitability, soil health, geographic variations, solar array design, and stakeholder perspectives. Led by Greg Barron-Gafford, PhD.

The AIDE Lab investigates global economic and environmental challenges which face individuals and households across the globe. A primary interest is measuring the climate adaptation and resilience of rural farmers. Led by Anna Josephson, PhD and Jeffrey D. Michler, PhD.

AZStreamCAT aims to create a comprehensive map of streamgage and streamflow measurement locations in Arizona, linked to a catalog of metadata. This project addresses the need for accessible streamflow data to manage land, water, energy, agriculture, and wildlife resources. Led by Martha P.L. Whitaker, PhD.

Our RainManSR project, a large-scale rainfall manipulation experiment at the Santa Rita Experimental Range, focuses on predicting the impact of extreme-duration drought on Southwest rangelands. Led by William K. Smith, PhD, Joel Biederman, PhD, Yang Song, PhD, Nathan Pierce, PhD, and Fangyue Zhang, PhD.

In BEST-CLIM, researchers and students collaborate to determine the optimal vegetation structure for maximizing climate cooling potential in arid environments like the US Southwest. Students engaged in BEST-CLIM gain hands-on experience with fieldwork, lab work, data analysis and curation, as well as with dissemination of our findings to administrative, scientific, and public audiences. Led by Flurin Babst, PhD, Don Falk, PhD, William K. Smith, PhD, Willem van Leeuwen, PhD, and Alicja Babst-Kostecka, PhD.

The Biosphere 2 Rainforest Resilience VIP studies long-term ecosystem and individual responses to climate change using the unique environment of the Biosphere 2 rainforest. Students may investigate research questions using long-term environmental data from Biosphere 2, or new measurements taken within the Biosphere 2 rainforest. Led by Joost van Haren, PhD.

The CARE VIP focuses on understanding the intersection of climate change and reproductive decision-making, foregrounding the perspectives of young BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) in the Southwestern U.S. While some exposure to qualitative research is needed, skills that students will develop in this VIP include qualitative research design, discourse analysis, interviews, focus groups, data management, data analysis, and research presentation. Led by Janelle Lamoreaux, PhD.

The Coral Reef Resilience VIP aims to understand the interaction of biotic and abiotic factors on the physiology of corals. The three team leaders take complementary approaches from the fields of biology, geosciences and mathematics to understand how corals will be affected by future climate change and what we can do to promote their resiliency. Led by Jeremiah Hackett, PhD, Diane Thompson, PhD, and Laura Miller, PhD.

The Cultivating Equitable Food Policy in Southern Arizona VIP is a collaboration between the University of Arizona Food Systems Research Lab and the Pima County Food Alliance. Current research questions focus on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges that are present in Southern Arizona's local food system. Led By Gigi Owen, PhD, Laurel Bellante, PhD, and Shelby Thompson.

The Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill VIP builds on the long-term plant ecology research of Tumamoc Hill, starting with permanent plots first mapped 115 years ago. Students will address questions including "How are desert plants responding to changing climate?" and "What plant characteristics predict how different species respond to climate changes?" Led by Deborah Goldberg, PhD.

This team is currently full for Fall 2024.

The Developing a Climate-Smart Practice Optimization Tool for Sustainable Agriculture in the US VIP team aims to investigate how agricultural management practices (e.g., biochar addition, fertilization, irrigation, planting, and harvest) can achieve “climate-smart” objectives. Students will integrate observations with AI and process-based models to understand how nutrient use efficiency and water use efficiency can be optimized, and greenhouse gas emissions can be minimized to lead to more climate-smart agriculture. Led by Yang Song, PhD.

Conservation of wildlife that migrate across international boundaries can be challenged by inconsistent management across annual migratory ranges. Research by the EMIGRA VIP team informs efforts to overcome these challenges, and ultimately aims to develop principles for sustainable and equitable governance of transboundary migratory species. We focus on species that provide ecosystem services (e.g., wildlife viewing, pest suppression, pollination of food plants). Led by Jonathan Derbridge, PhD.

New Team Launching for Fall 2024!

The Environmental and Social Justice VIP team focuses on creating community-driven solutions revolving around sustainability in 1) the US-Mexico Borderlands and 2) Portland, Oregon. These multi-stakeholder, interdisciplinary collaborations incorporate culture, history, science, and other topics in seeking sustainable solutions to identified challenges. Led by Caitlyn Hall, PhD, and Nicole Antebi, MFA.

The Genomics of Thermotolerant Tomato Reproduction VIP team focuses on developing heat-tolerant tomato cultivars by understanding the molecular mechanisms that control tomato reproduction. We will use genomics to define these molecular adaptations, and determine whether they are sufficient to enhance fruit production of thermosensitive cultivars at high temperature. Led by Dr. Ravishankar Palanivelu, PhD.

Healthy Harvesters aims to create a program promoting health and community resilience through community gardening, specifically addressing melanoma survivors' unique needs. We explore the links between health and environment, offering a unique opportunity to improve the quality of life for Arizonans. Led by Meghan Skiba, PhD and Caitlyn Hall, PhD.

Four co-occurring trends related to environmental resilience have motivated the development of Modular Integrated Sustainable Agricultural Systems (MISAS) at UA. These include rising global population, food waste, fresh water availability, and increasing urban residence patterns. MISAS, a controlled environment agriculture (CEA) system, address all four of these issues. by integrating four food systems (fish, mushrooms, insects, plants) into a highly efficient, controlled circular economy system. Led by Goggy Davidowitz, PhD, Kevin Fitzsimmons, PhD, Barry Pryor, PhD, and Murat Kacira, PhD.

The Integrated Climate Research: Ecology, Water, and Weather (ICREWW) VIP team address the main question: How do climate variables change over time, and affect one another? Students may focus primarily on the ecological and phenological aspect, the environmental hydrology and water resources aspect, or the atmospheric weather and climate analysis aspects.  Groups will interact with one another to identify the relationships across these interdisciplinary aspects related to climate change and the regional impacts in the Southwest U.S. Led by Martha Whitaker, PhD, Theresa Crimmins, PhD, Guo-Yue Niu, PhD, Christopher Castro, PhD, and Hsin-I Chang, PhD.

The goal of this VIP is to understand feedback mechanisms between life, hydrology, and geochemistry, how those mechanisms scale, and how different disciplines converge to address scientific questions on landscape terraformation. Insights gained from LEO can help us learn new ways to address problems ranging from how to build sustainable life support systems for other planets to restoring severely degraded landscapes from mining or other processes. Led by Scott Saleska, PhD, Katerina Dontsova, PhD, and Wei-Ren Ng, MS.

The Microbial Volatilome VIP aims to understand the role of volatile compounds in microbial metabolism, focusing on studying the diverse volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced by microbial communities. Led by Laura Meredith, PhD.

The Precision Aging Network Student Ambassadors team focuses on introducing students to aging research, providing training in public health principles and community engagement, and promoting culturally appropriate approaches to increase older and racial/ethnic minority individuals' participation in brain health research. Led by Zhao Chen, PhD, Tomas Nuño, PhD, and Amanda E. Sokan, PhD.

The Printable Photovoltaics VIP team aims to develop scalable approaches for fabricating efficient and environmentally stable printable photovoltaic devices based on metal halide perovskites. Perovskites can have performance characteristics similar to silicon, but need additional investigation to ensure their chemical and thermomechanical stability. Led by Adam Printz, PhD.

The Redox Flow Batteries (RFBs) for Long-Duration Energy Storage VIP team focuses on developing a new class of electrolyte for RFBs to address long-duration energy storage challenges. Led by Thomas L. Gianetti, PhD, and Jules Moutet, PhD.

The Tree-Rings, Forests, and the Climate Crisis VIP team aims to quantify and better predict the feedback between forests and climate. They work toward this by creating and analyzing a spatial network of tree-ring data, and integrating that dataset with forest inventory data to advance the science underlying nature-based climate solutions (NbCS). Led by Margaret E.K. Evans, PhD.

The Tucson Bee Collaborative VIP team works to increase knowledge, awareness, and conservation of native bees throughout the Sonoran Desert region. The team documents the morphological and genetic diversity of our region's native pollinators by 1) building a specimen collection, and producing and publishing both 2) high-resolution photographs of bees, and 3) DNA sequences from standardized regions of their genomes. Led by Wendy Moore, PhD; Kimberly Franklin, PhD; Jennifer Katcher, MS; Gene Hall, MSc; and Kathryn Thomas, PhD.

The Water Whys VIP team focuses on developing scientifically accurate and accessible graphical explanations of water-related topics to aid public understanding. VIP students work collaboratively with faculty/staff with expertise in hydrology, meteorology, graphic design, and journalism to learn what it takes to make scientifically accurate, visually effective and accessible communication graphics geared toward a diverse and multi-lingual public. Led by Laura Condon, PhD, Sara Kobilka, MS, Megan Roxbury, and Garry Forger.