Martin Stute

Martin Stute, Alena Wels Hirschorn'58 and Martin Hirschorn Professor in Environmental and Applied Sciences began teaching at Barnard in 1993 and became a full-time faculty member in 1995. He serves as Co-Chair (or Chair) of Barnard's Department of Environmental Science.

Professor Stute holds a concurrent position as Adjunct Senior Research Scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and is a member of the faculty of Columbia's Department of Earth and Environmental Science. Professor Stute teaches such courses as Environmental Data Analysis, Hydrology, Workshop in Sustainable Development and leads the joint Columbia/Barnard Senior Research Seminar, the capstone experience for our majors.

His research interests include water resources, contaminant transport in groundwater, Carbon sequestration, unconventional gas production, paleoclimate, mathematical modeling of environmental phenomena, and the social and economic impact of global environmental change.

Regarding his development as an environmental scientist, Professor Stute says, "I knew early on that I wanted to dedicate my career to environmental issues and studied physics, because there was no such thing as environmental science to study at a university back then. My PhD thesis research topic at the University of Heidelberg focused on novel tracer techniques to study the dynamics of ground water flow, and the use of ground water as an archive of paleoclimate. I have been interested in water issues ever since and can still hardly resist to take a plunge into a thermal spring I encounter or take a sip from a well that might tap an interesting aquifer. I believe that water will play an increasingly important role in our attempts to achieve a sustainable global development."

Education

  • BS equivalent, University of Münster, Germany
  • MS equivalent, PhD, University of Heidelberg, Germany