Member Capabilities

Biological Sciences:

• Biotechnology – cell & molecular biology, role of anti-cancer agents in metastasis, anticancer compound testing, molecular biology of plant pathogenesis (bacterial secretory systems), controls and molecular biology of seed development.

• Cell and molecular biology – anatomical and biochemical basis of learning and memory, cell fate, evolution of sperm development,

• Organismal Biology- stress physiology of plants and animals, cardiovascular development, insect physiology and flight, crustacean physiology, water transport in plants, root functions and development, vascular plant taxonomy of southwestern desert species

• Environment – global climate change and effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 on desert ecosystems, restoration ecology, desert cryptogramic crusts and moss evolution, aquatic biology in ephemeral ponds and streamside studies, insect physiology and environmental effects, microbial ecology, environmental horticulture

• Energy & Environment - environmental organic chemistry, aquatic chemistry, atmospheric chemistry, colloidal transport of trace metals, photochemistry of low molecular weight aromatic hydrocarbons, fate and transport of organic compounds in the environment, use of cationic surfaces to enhance the sorption of toxic organic compounds by desert soils

• Material Science - polymer synthesis and characterization, thermotropic and lyotropic liquid crystalline polymers, synthesis and characterization of conductive polymer/metal composite materials, behavior of molecules in the vicinity of surfaces (nanotechnology), organic electroluminescent light-emitting devices, polymeric foams, monofluorinated peptidyl ketones as serine/cysteine protease inhibitors

Geoscience:

• Quaternary studies, especially in relation to reconstruction of Ice-age environments and paleoclimates
• Structural geology and tectonism, with an emphasis on the reconstruction of the tectonic framework of the western USA, including neo-tectonics
• Stratigraphic and biostratigraphic analyses of carbonate and clastic rock sequences in the western USA
• Groundwater and vadose water problems, relative to modeling of systems, watershed analysis, and contaminant transfer
• Igneous and metamorphic petrography and geochemistry, including volcanic systems

To further the Department’s teaching and research mission, the Department has at its disposal:

• XRF and XRD capabilities
• A Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) facility
• A state-of-the-art Electron Microprobe Laboratory
• An Ar/Ar Isotope Geochronology laboratory
• Geographic Information System (GIS) laboratory
• Other standard analytical and rock preparation facilities

Physics:

• Experimental study of the properties and internal structures of atoms, molecules, and macromolecules using cw and pulsed lasers.

• Experimental study of bulk material characteristics under high pressure and high magnetic field with a diamond anvil cell using x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy.

• Computer modeling and simulation of novel materials, cold atom collisions, and chemical processes in supernova, quasars, early universe, and molecular clouds using the Keck Computational Facility at the UNLV Physics Department.

• Observational astronomy on the formation and evolution of stars and galaxies, evolution of stellar atmospheres, and the origin of the universe. Faculty has direct access to observation time at the Hubble Space Telescope.

• Speciation and bioavailability of naturally occurring radionuclides, fission products, transuranic elements, and hazardous chemicals from soil and waste forms, and their transport in the environment; examination of contaminant leachability as a function of geochemical conditions, as well as uptake by native vegetation.

Radiation Risk Assessment:

• Determination of the transport and uptake of radionuclides, radiation source terms; dose assessment; pathway analysis.

Freshwater Reservoir Studies:

• Determination of the levels of radionuclides and hazardous chemicals in the water, sediment, and biota of freshwater reservoirs in the southwest U.S.; ¹³⁷Cs dating of sediment cores; sidescan and seismic reflection techniques to determine the surfical geology and sediment thickness of the reservoir bottom.

• Investigation of light dose and dose rate effects in human brain tumor cells; evaluation of the efficacy of various photosensitizers; investigation of cellular mechanisms of photodynamic therapy using two- photon fluorescence microscopy; investigation of effects of combined ionizing radiation and photodynamic therapies; development of novel indwelling catheters for treating brain tumor patients; development of dosimetric instrumentation for real-time monitoring of photodynamic dose.

• Experimental investigations using steady-state, frequency-domain photon migration, and time-resolved techniques; modeling of light propagation using diffusion theory and numerical techniques, such as Monte Carlo and finite difference methods.

• Evaluation of novel semiconductor detectors for in-vivo dose monitoring during radiation therapy and investigation of dose accuracy during stereotactic radiosurgery of the brain

• Chemical and biological analyses of samples of air, water, soil, and biota in support of hazardous facility site evaluations, environmental monitoring, and regulatory compliance;

• Archaeological investigations of industrial, commercial, and residential development sites for the presence of prehistoric or historic archaeological artifacts;

• Simulation and monitoring of indoor air environments for biological and chemical contaminants;

• Ecological investigations of industrial, commercial, and residential development sites for the presence of endangered species of plants and animals;

• Environmental management and resource assessment of tropical and arid aquatic ecosystems and watersheds

Current Activities

HRC researchers are presently involved in several research projects. A substantial number of these projects have their basis in the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project and the Environmental Restoration of the Nevada Test Site:

• Selection, characterization, and application of organic acids for use as ground water tracers

• Chemical fingerprinting of ground waters to assist in determining recharge zones, flow paths

• State of Nevada certified for drinking water analysis

• Development of advanced analytical environmental instruments and techniques.

• Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for enhanced detection of microorganisms.

• Indoor air monitoring to assess the concentration of airborne fungal and bacterial populations for local, state, and national government agencies, school districts, and public and private sector organizations.

• Aeromicrobiological methods development and instrumentation validation using an experimental indoor environment.

• Identification of terrestrial, aquatic, and atmospheric microbial populations.

• Rare, threatened, and endangered species of plants and animals, and proposing appropriate mitigation measures when necessary

• Habitat evaluations to meet local, state, and federal requirements

• Evaluation of biodiversity

• Ecosystem health and responses to chemical and biological stressors

• Desert tortoise assessment, removal, and relocation

• Applied environmental research within the desert Southwest and Central America to provide information on topics related to water quality; contamination by bacteria and other pathogens, heavy metals and pesticides; and fish ecology and biology

• Environmental assessments to meet the requirements of federal agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Reclamation

• Research on rare and endangered species of plants and animals with an emphasis on habitat conservation to protect species of special concern

• Studies relating to the biota of special areas such as national parks, nature preserves, and private lands.

• Development of required preservation packages providing information concerned with prehistoric and historic archaeological sites.

• Complete archival research, survey, excavation, analyses, all aspects of reporting and recording, curation, and data management.

• Projects completed by professional, UNLV students, and faculty field investigators.

• Southern Nevada Archival Repository for archaeological site records in the four southern Nevada counties, Nye, Lincoln, Esmeralda, and Clark.

• identify on a site-by-site basis the risks to human health and the environment,

• identify data gaps and uncertainties and find methods for filling or reducing them,

• recommend the process by which identified risks can be reduced, review and define the costs for risk reduction,

• recommend how public participation should be part of risk evaluation, and

• demonstrate and make recommendations on how risks should be communicated to non-technical audiences.

Science & Technology Programs

Transportation:

• traffic crash data analysis; internet, global positioning systems, geographic information systems and computer aided design systems application for transportation systems management, field evaluation of performance of pavement making materials, adaptive control of traffic signals, automated people movers technology.

Information Science:

• software development and testing technology, document analysis, optical character recognition and information retrieval analysis, information customization on the web, digital publication, coding schemes for comprising and manipulating image documents, scientific image data manipulation.

Advanced computation:

• development of computer codes for specialized application: risk assessment for hazardous release, air quality in large office buildings, groundwater flow and containment transport, wind fields calculation, 3-D transport modeling of radionuclides, modeling surface uptake and inspection.

Energy and environment:

• advanced building technologies and energy conservation, evaluation of dust suppressants, perchlorate biodegradation studies, unsaturated flow modeling in arid climates, analysis of changes and trends in water quality indictors, seasonal climate forecasting in agricultural and natural ecosystems, hydrogen/electric hybrid vehicles, groundwater flow and contaminant transport in porous media

Control and sensors:

• adaptive control of aerospace systems, dual mode inverse control and stabilization, nonlinear adaptive output feedback control, deterministic and stochastic signals and linear systems, vision-based robot control, remote controlled mobile imaging real time object recognition and tracking, sliding mode cooperative control, robot path planning.

Biomedical:

• microvessal permeability and tumor metastasis, measurement of solute diffusion in tissue using confocal microscopy, finite element modeling of impact mechanics, somatosensory perception in lower limb prosthetic sockets, neural networks with wavelet transforms in mammographic studies, automated mammographic mass shape classification.

Geological:

• rutting characterization of asphaltic mixes, deposition processes of allurial soils, seismic measurements, earthquake ground motion simulator, application of surface waves, soil-structure interaction.