Dr. Ben K. Odhiambo is currently a Full Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Mary Washington. He was an undergraduate and graduated from the University of Nairobi, Kenya and the University of Victoria, Canada, respectively. He earned his PhD in Environmental Dynamics (Geoscience) in 2002 from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. His research interests include the behavior of contaminants and nutrients in the context of natural aquatic systems, using tools such as hydrochemical water analysis, transient and steady-state tracers, particle fluxes and sedimentation rates, multivariate statistics, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
Dr. Matthew C. Ricker received his B.S. in Geology from the University of Mary Washington in 2006, M.S. in Environmental Sciences from the University of Rhode Island in 2010, and Ph.D. in Forestry from Auburn University in 2013. He subsequently worked as an Assistant Professor of Soil Science at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania from August 2014 to July 2018. He has been an Assistant Professor at the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, North Carolina State University in Raleigh since August 2018. His research focused on the morphology, genesis, classification, and functions of soils in relation to climate change and anthropogenic land use alterations. Dr. Ricker works on projects related to coastal zone soils and sea level rise, landscape reconstruction using multi-proxy approaches in depositional soils (floodplains/wetlands), soil carbon sequestration and storage, water quality improvement functions provided by riparian zones, ancient anthropogenic soils in the Maya region of Mesoamerica, and onsite water protection in North Carolina.
