The entrance to Pollock Road on University Park campus.

Image: Kevin Sliman

Four faculty members join the Institutes

of Energy and the Environment
Derek Bannister
August 25, 2017
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. The Institutes of Energy and the Environment (IEE) announced the addition
of four new co-funded faculty members who will join Penn State during the 2017-18 academic year.
The faculty members are Kristina Douglass, Jonathan Duncan, Jillian Goldfarb and Gregory Pavlak.

The addition of these faculty members aligns with the goals of the Institutes of Energy and the
Environment to strategically hire researchers who are interested in interdisciplinary work as well as
fostering research, education and outreach in the areas of energy and the environment.

Kristina Douglass, assistant professor in the College of the Liberal Arts Department of
Anthropology, is an Africanist anthropologist, focusing on the anthropology and archaeology of sub-
Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean, as well as the way humans interact with their environment.
Her work aims to link anthropology, conservation and development, while addressing the insertion
of archaeological narratives of human environmental impact into conservation and policy discourse.
She earned her doctorate in anthropology from Yale University and is currently a Peter Buck
Postdoctoral Fellow in Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institutions National Museum of Natural
History. Prior, she served as an adjunct faculty member at George Mason University.

Douglass current work investigates human-environment interaction in Madagascar. She uses

archaeological, ethnohistorical, ethnographic and biological data to understand the dynamic
relationship between communities and their environment over time. For the last ve years, she has
directed the Morombe Archaeological Project (MAP) in Madagascar, a project that combines
regional excavations with gathering oral histories in southwest Madagascar.

Jonathan Duncan, assistant professor of hydrology in the College of Agricultural Sciences

Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, is interested in understanding how the
biophysical template of watersheds aects the hydrologic transport and biogeochemical
transformations of nutrients. He uses geospatial analysis, environmental sensors and modeling
approaches to answer questions about nutrient transport and the resiliency of certain watersheds.
He was most recently a member of the Institute for the Environment at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received his doctorate in watershed hydrology and
biogeochemistry.

We are excited to have Jon Duncan join the faculty here at Penn State, in the area of eco-
hydrology, said Elizabeth Boyer, assistant director of the Institutes of Energy and the Environment.
He has broad, interdisciplinary interests in urban, agricultural and forested watersheds; in
science and policy; in basic and applied research making him a great potential collaborator for a
wide range of folks across the College of Agricultural Sciences and the University.

Jillian Goldfarb will join the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences John and Willie Leone Family
Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering at Penn State in January 2018 as an assistant
professor. Her research focuses on the issues surrounding energy generation and its impact on the
environment. Her approach to the integrated biorenery incorporates inorganic compounds into
cellulosic feedstocks or the raw materials used for an industrial process to engineer co-
products such as nanomaterials, electrodes or heterogeneous adsorbents. She received her
doctorate in chemical engineering from Brown University. Her most recent position was as an
assistant professor in mechanical engineering and materials science and engineering at Boston
University.

The interdisciplinary opportunities aorded by IEE were key factors in Goldfarbs decision to move
to Penn State. She is looking forward to expanding her own research on biofuels and sustainable
materials for environmental applications, as well as using her skills in thermal and chemical analysis,
process design, and materials characterization to support colleagues across the University.

It is very exciting that Dr. Goldfarb is joining our department and contributing to energy
engineering with her interdisciplinary approach to energy problems, said Sarma Pisupati, professor
of energy and mineral engineering and the undergraduate program chair of energy engineering in
the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering. She will be a great
t in the Institutes of Energy and the Environment as she works at the interface of several
disciplines.

Gregory Pavlak, assistant professor of architectural engineering in the College of Engineering, has
research interests that focus on increasing the intelligence and autonomy of building energy
systems and generation technologies. His past research accomplishments include optimizing
commercial building participation in energy and ancillary service markets, optimal control of
commercial building thermal mass portfolios, an energy signal tool for decision support in building
energy systems, and Bayesian calibration of inverse gray-box building model parameters.

Prior to his position at Penn State, he was a visiting assistant professor of engineering at Hope
College in Michigan and was the lead scientist for QCoecient Inc., a smart grid engine that
integrates HVAC operations in commercial buildings with electric grid operations and markets.

Pavlak received his doctorate in architectural engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

IEE is one of seven interdisciplinary research institutes at Penn State. It fosters and facilitates
interdisciplinary scholarship and collaboration to positively impact important energy and
environmental challenges. IEE brings together more than 500 extraordinary faculty, sta and
students to advance the energy and environmental research missions of the University.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Kevin Sliman, krs150@psu.edu

Work Phone: 814-863-0037

Last Updated September 05, 2017