Holden Laboratory

Our Current Projects

Urban Water Environment (UWE) is about cities where, worldwide, human populations are concentrated.  Cities employ, house, sustain, entertain, educate, and transport people.  In cities, there are no real boundaries between “natural” and built...
Engineered nanomaterials are now mainstream, i.e. used in consumer, industrial, and commercial products.  Yet, there is a need for understanding how synthetic nanomaterials perform upon release into the environment.  Microorganisms substantially...
Microbial processes in the unsaturated zone affect soil chemistry and chemical fates, with relevance to groundwater quality and atmospheric emissions. We examine microbial community composition, diversity, and processes in surface and deep soils, as...
This research regards assessing human fecal pollution in coastal watersheds and waters, including studying origins and fates. Where coastal waters are contaminated by pathogen-containing fecal material, public health is threatened. Conventional...
Sedgwick Reserve soil at 15 cm depth
Sedgwick Reserve soil at 15 cm depth, imaged using ESEM in MEIAF (http://www.bren.ucsb.edu/facilities/meiaf/ )
Marina Feraud and Laurie Van De Werfhorst sampling offshore for water quality research.