Overview
Dr. Mažeika Sullivan is an Associate Professor in the School of Environment and Natural Resources at The Ohio State University (OSU) and the Director of the Ramsar-designated Schiermeier Olentangy River Wetland Research Park. His research addresses the ecology and conservation of stream, river, and wetland ecosystems, from headwaters to estuaries. His research group – the Stream and River Ecology (STRIVE) Lab – is broadly interested in two questions:
1. How do both natural environmental variability and human activities shape biodiversity, community and food-web organization, and ecosystem condition and function in linked aquatic-riparian ecosystems?
2. How can we apply findings from Q1 to management, conservation, and restoration of aquatic ecosystems and water quality?
To date, Dr. Sullivan has published 52 peer-reviewed articles, three book chapters, and offered 173 scholarly presentations and talks. He has been awarded ~$5.7 million in research funding from several sources including the US Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, US Fish & Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, Ohio Division of Natural Resources, and Ohio Corn and Small Grains Marketing Programs. In addition to work in Ohio, Dr. Sullivan conducts research in multiple geographic regions of the U.S. and internationally in Eastern Europe, the Caribbean, and South America. Research activities of the STRIVE lab are consistently linked to outreach activities related to aquatic ecosystems and water quality.
Dr. Sullivan’s service activities include participation as a member of the EPA’s Scientific Advisory Board’s “Connectivity of Streams and Wetlands to Downstream Waters” Panel (2013-2014), acting as a technical expert for the Ohio EPA’s Coldwater Streams Designation, and reviewing for >35 ecological and environmental journals. Dr. Sullivan has also participated in Congressional Briefings to Members of Congress on the recently proposed “waters of the US” (WOTUS) rule, and has offered two national seminars on the topic. He is a Distinguished University teacher and served as a Fulbright Distinguished Chair of Biodiversity and Sustainable Development (Colombia, 2014-2015).
Dr. Sullivan is also actively engaged in promoting and supporting equity, inclusion, and diversity in ecology and natural resources through teaching, research, and service activities. At the national level, Dr. Sullivan serves on the Education & Diversity Committee of the Society for Freshwater Science, and is working with the US Department of Justice, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Coeur d’Alene Tribe of northern Idaho on issues relative to Native American water rights.
More information on Dr. Sullivan’s research program can be found here: http://u.osu.edu/strive/.
Additional information on the Schiermeier Olentangy River Wetland Research Park can be found here: http://u.osu.edu/orwrpramsar/.
For prospective graduate students: I am always on the lookout for talented, motivated, and passionate graduate students. If you are interested in my lab, please send me a short description of your interests and career goals, a CV/resume, your GPA (undergraduate and graduate, if applicable), and your GRE scores and percentiles.
Selected Publications
Click here for the selected publications
Courses
ENR 5280 Stream Ecology
ENR 5350.01 Taxonomy and Behavior of Aquatic Invertebrates
ENR 626 Methods in Aquatic Ecology (2009-2011)
