Led by Charley Driscoll, EMPOWER is a team of over 50 people, including the leadership team, affiliated faculty, staff, graduate students, and external advisors. Browse our full directory below, which includes the leadership team and our graduate student trainees, or check out the information about our affiliated faculty and external advisors.
Christopher Scholz
Professor, Earth Sciences
Scholz’s research focuses on recovering records of past climate from lake basins, and on the sedimentary basin analysis of extensional systems, with emphasis on lacustrine basins. Current research efforts are concentrated on the large lakes of tropical Africa and the Finger Lakes of Central New York. Lake basins contain some of the highest quality archives of climate change on the continents, and new drill core records from the low-latitude lakes of Africa are revealing new details about the Pleistocene record of climate change.…
Riley Sessanna
MS, Earth Sciences
Riley attended SUNY Geneseo where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Geology. He also has a strong background in mathematics and physics which inspired him to pursue the study of Hydrogeology. He now works with Christa Kelleher in the Department of Earth Sciences as a Master’s Student. His interests are widespread, but he is currently studying a local stream in Syracuse, connecting patterns of hydrology and biogeochemistry through field measurements and aerial imaging.
Shaidu Nuru Shaban
PhD, Earth Sciences
Shaidu was born in Tanzania and he is Tanzanian by citizenship. The nature of loving rocks and minerals was the major influence on his career path. He graduated from the University of Dar es salaam with a BSc. in Geology with honours. Four years later, he decided to specialise in petroleum geology, graduating with an MSc. …
Donald Siegel
Emeritus Professor, Earth Sciences
Donald Siegel’s career spans over 40 years of doing research, consulting and teaching on problems related the aqueous geochemistry and hydrogeology of natural and contaminated waters. He earned his BS in Geology from the University of Rhode Island, his MS in Geology at Penn State University, and his PhD in Hydrogeology from the University of Minnesota.…
John “J.R.” Slosson
PhD, Earth Sciences
J.R. is PhD student in the Department of Earth Sciences working with Drs. Greg Hoke and Laura Lautz on research questions involving water availability and quality. He holds a B.A. in economics and a J.D. from the University of Virginia and spent five years practicing law with a prominent firm in New York City before deciding to pursue graduate work at Syracuse.…
Alexa Stathis
PhD, Chemistry
Alexa is a third year PhD student in the Department of Chemistry working for Dr. Tara Kahan. Her primary research interests include understanding the environmental fate of atmospheric and aquatic pollutants. Currently, her research focuses on understanding the fate of organic, aromatic pollutants in snow, ice and natural waters. Alexa received her Bachelor’s in chemistry from Stonehill College in 2014.
Laura Streib
PhD, Earth Sciences
Laura is a PhD student in the department of Earth Sciences working with Dr. Christopher Scholz. Prior to attending Syracuse University Laura obtained a B.S. at Georgia State University and a M.S. at the University of Kentucky both in the geological sciences. As a M.S. student she utilized paleolimnology and diatom paleoecology to study the paleoclimate of the eastern Sierra Nevada mountain range in California.…