The Sustainability Institute is excited to announce the recipients of the 2026 Sustainability Research Seed Grant program. SI awarded over $300,000 in funding to 12 faculty-led team projects focused on advancing interdisciplinary knowledge and solutions in SI’s priority areas of AI, circular economy, climate adaptation, energy, health communities, and water.
Half of the awarded projects this year are deeply embedded in Ohio communities, reflecting SI’s focus on advancing transdisciplinary research and place-based solutions to local sustainability and resilience challenges. Topics range from addressing climate vulnerabilities and health impacts to innovations in resilient agricultural production, sustainable forest management, and harmful algal bloom monitoring.
“By integrating external partners and community-based knowledge into the research process, these projects are better positioned to address real-world sustainability challenges and their societal impacts, particularly as communities across Ohio and elsewhere confront increasing climate risks” said Charlene Brenner, SI’s Research Development Partnerships Senior Analyst.
Congratulations to the following grant recipients:
Sustainable Food Cold Chains
Sustainable Food Cold Chains (FCCs) safeguard the safety, nutrition, and quality of perishable foods from harvest to retail. Using an integrated, data-driven framework, this project aims to strengthen climate, energy, and nutrition sustainability by optimizing performance across temperature-controlled food logistics. AI can enhance sustainability across the FCC system by predicting food spoilage, optimizing energy use, and reducing emissions.
Research Team: Qadeer Ahmed, Assistant Professor, MAE; Sidra Bhatti, Applied Research Engineer, CAR; Sudhir Sastry, Professor, FABE; Giorgio Rizzoni, Professor, MAE; Huixin Wang, PhD Student, ISE
Waves of Memory: Storytelling and Earth Sciences of Coastal Change in the Cascadia Margin for Sustainability
Waves of Memory brings community storytelling and Earth sciences together to study Cascadia’s changing coastlines. By integrating oral histories, geological records and geophysical measurements, this project creates a shared framework for understanding past tsunamis and guiding future coastal resilience and climate adaptation.
Research Team: Brendan Crowell, Assistant Professor, SES; Jill Leonard-Pingel, Associate Professor, Newark; Larry Krissek, Professor Emeritus, SES; Dave Cole, Professor, SES; Robyn Wilson, Professor, SENR; Jeffrey Jacquet, Associate Professor, SENR; Rene Castillo, Grad Student and Community Partner, SES
Left Out While Locked In: Assessing Climate Vulnerability of Ohio’s Aging Prison Population
Extreme heat is exposing gaps in institutional preparedness. Ohio prisons—home to rapidly aging populations due to pre-1996 sentencing laws—face acute danger. This project evaluates heat, infrastructure, and health risks and co‑produces practical protections with state partners, creating solutions adaptable for vulnerable populations housed in other care facilities.
Research Team: Alia Dietsch, Associate Professor, SENR; Smitha Rao, Assistant Professor, Social Work; Arbor Quist, Assistant Professor, Public Health; Kelsea Best, Assistant Professor, CEGE/CRP
Developing the Ohio Regional Carbohydrate Health And Research Database (ORCHARD): Climate-Resilient Apple Production Through Physiological Monitoring
Ohio's first real-time tree carbohydrate monitoring network transforms climate-adaptive orchard management through precision agriculture. By providing apple growers physiological data to optimize crop loads and frost protection, ORCHARD strengthens rural agricultural livelihoods while reducing environmental inputs—demonstrating transdisciplinary approaches to building healthy, resilient communities under climate variability.
Research Team: Jonathan Fresnedo Ramirez, Associate Professor, HCS; Diane D Miller, Associate Professor, HCS; Joseph Scheerens, Professor, HCS; Joy Rumble, Associate Professor, ACEL; Kate Hu, Assistant Professor, Statistics; Kris Read, Staff, CFAES Web Services
East Palestine Health Outcomes Monitoring, Evaluation and Storytelling (HOMES)
This project develops a community engagement toolkit in East Palestine, Ohio to augment community engagement efforts following the 2023 train derailment. East Palestine residents will participate in hands-on activities using it to share experiences and priorities for health monitoring efforts.
Research Team: Daniel Gingerich, Assistant Professor, CEGE / ISE; Michael Rayo, Associate Professor, ISE; Darryl Hood, Professor, EHS-CPH
Distributed, Point-of-Use Biosensors for Cyanotoxins Toxin in Lake Water
Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are increasing in frequency due to climate change, releasing toxins that threaten freshwater, drinking water and food supplies. This project proposes low-cost, portable, distributed biosensors that rapidly detect these toxins onsite, enabling continuous monitoring, large-scale tracking and prediction to better protect ecosystems, people and resources.
Research Team: Wu Lu, Professor, ECE; Jiyoung Lee, Professor EHS/CPH and FST/CFAES.
The Appetite-Environment Link: Investigating the Influence of GLP-1 Use on Sustainability of Food Choice, Eating Behavior, and Context Sensitivity Using Immersive Technologies
What we eat is shaped not just by appetite, but by the environments where food is purchased and consumed. This project examines whether GLP-1 medications change how people respond to those environments. Findings will promote healthier and more sustainable food choices, reduce overconsumption and support long-term public and environmental health.
Research Team: Christopher Simons, Professor, FST; Brian Roe, Professor, AEDE; Aishwarya Badiger, FST; Jeremy Patterson, Advanced Computing Center for Arts and Design, OSU
The Water Grant University: How the Civil War, Western Water Rights, and Tribal Water Security Are Foundational to the US Public Education System
The Morrill Act (1862) funded land-grant universities through the sale of western lands taken from Indigenous peoples, likely conferring senior water rights. Using newly available water rights databases, this project will quantify those transfers and assess their lasting impacts, informing sustainable and equitable water governance amid growing western water scarcity.
Research Team: Jim Stagge, Associate Professor, CEGE; John Davis, Assistant Professor, Landscape Architecture, Knowlton, ENG
Earth Mother – Indigenous Latin America and Sustainable Environments
This project pairs interdisciplinary faculty and staff in humanities, social and environmental sciences at Ohio State with community partners in Amazonia and highland Ecuador in an intercultural, transdisciplinary collaboration supporting community initiatives in reforestation, biodiversity resilience, sustainable water systems, education and cultural knowledge and livelihoods connected to the land.
Research Team: Michelle Wibbelsman, Associate Professor, Spanish and Portuguese; Bryan Mark, Professor, Geography/Byrd; Jo Peacock, Assistant Professor, SENR; Amy Youngs, Associate Professor, Art; Emma Kline, Lab Specialist, Art; Maria Jose Iturralds and Daniel Bryan with Pachaysana Foundation (external)
From Scrap to Sustainability: AI for Circular Metals
Metal scrap recycling is crucial for environmental sustainability (reducing the need for mining) as well as supply chain security (reducing dependence on imported materials). However, it is difficult and expensive to recycle because scrap metal is often "dirty"—mixed with unpredictable impurities. This project aims to lower this barrier by developing AI scanning tools to quickly identify and sort scrap. By making recycling faster and more efficient, we aim to improve recovery rates for various metals.
Research Team: Sarah Wolff, Assistant Professor, MAE / ISE; Chen Chen, Associate Professor, ISE; Alan Luo, Professor, MSE/ISE; Jianye Zhang, Researcher, MSE
Climate-Driven Vector-Borne Disease Across Urban and Rural Landscapes in Ohio
Climate change and land-use shifts facilitate expanding tick ranges and tickborne disease risk in Ohio. This project models current and future distributions of blacklegged tick and Lyme disease, identify key socioecological drivers and produce integrated risk maps for humans and companion animals to guide surveillance, prevention and public health planning.
Research Team: Rosa Pesapane, Associate Professor, Veterinary Preventative Medicine; Vanessa Varaljay, Chief Research Officer, IDI and Assistant Professor, Veterinary Biosciences, VetMed; Steven Quiring, Professor, Geography; Afsoon Sabet, PhD student/ expected PostDoc, Entomology
Identifying Trait-Based Mechanisms of Resilience in Ohio’s Fragmented Forest Landscapes to Inform Applied Conservation & Sustainable Forest Management
Human disturbance (e.g., fragmentation, invasive species) of forests can erode interactions between animal and plant communities that support ecosystem function (e.g., pollination, pest control) and resilience. This project will quantify how plant-animal interactions shift across disturbance gradients within forested landscapes, to help inform scalable strategies for adaptive forest management.
Research Team: Jo Peacock, Assistant Professor, SENR; Simon Power, Visiting Assistant Professor, SENR; Kayla Perry, Assistant Professor, Entomology; William Peterman, Associate Professor, SENR