Avner Vengosh is a Duke University Distinguished Professor of Environmental Quality at the Nicholas School of the Environment. Professor Vengosh and his team have studied the energy-water nexus, conducting pioneer research on the impact of hydraulic fracturing and coal ash disposal on the quantity and quality of water resources in the U.S. and China. He has also investigated the sources and mechanisms of water contamination in numerous countries across the globe, including salinity and radioactivity in the Middle East, uranium in India, fluoride in Eastern Africa, arsenic in Vietnam, and hexavalent chromium in North Carolina and China. As part of these studies, his team has developed novel geochemical and isotopic tracers that are used as fingerprints to delineate the sources of water contamination and evaluate potential risks for human health. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America (GSA) and International Association of Geochemistry (IAGC). In 2019, 2020 and 2021 he was recognized as one of the Web of Science Highly Cited Researchers. He serves as an Editor of GeoHealth and on the editorial board of the journal Environmental Science and Technology. He has published 165 scientific papers in leading international journals. His recent cross-disciplinary book “Water Quality Impacts of the Energy-Water Nexus” (Cambridge University Press, 2020) provides an integrated assessment of the different scientific and policy tools around the energy-water nexus. It focuses on how water use, and wastewater and waste solids produced from fossil fuel energy production affect water quality and quantity. Summarizing cutting edge research, the book describes the scientific methods for detecting contamination sources in the context of policy and regulations.
School Division
Earth & Climate SciencesEducation
- Ph.D., Australian National University (Australia) (1990)
- M.S., Hebrew University (Israel) (1986)
- B.S., Hebrew University (Israel) (1984)
Websites
Recent Grants
- The Potential Environmental Effects of Lithium Mining and Extraction awarded by Albemarle Corporation
- USGS Oil and Gas Isotopic Samples Analyses awarded by US Geological Survey
- The Hydrogen Project awarded by Ohio State University
- Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopes on Small Sample awarded by Florida International University
- The Toxicity of Coal Ash from India awarded by Earthjustice
Recent Publications
- The Science of the Total Environment 870, ( ): 161878
- Fuel 330, ( ):
- The Science of the Total Environment 850, ( ): 157971
- The Science of the Total Environment 851, no. Pt 2 ( ): 158371
- Global Biogeochemical Cycles 36, no. 11 ( ):