Senior Thesis

The Senior Research Seminar, offered jointly with Barnard College, can be taken in the Spring/Fall or Fall/Spring sequence and includes guided, independent, in-depth research as well as discussions about scientific presentations and posters, data analysis, library research methods, and scientific writing culminating in the senior thesis. Each student is responsible for oral research presentations and an extended written report on a related subject of his or her choice. Completing a senior thesis with a B+ or better in both seminar courses is required for departmental honors. As of spring 2022, over 60 students have completed a thesis with the sustainable development program.

A list of past SDEV senior theses are below.

Economics of Bidirectional EV Charging in Apartments
Divya Agarwala, CC 2023

Environmental Stressors as Drivers of Migration in West Africa
Clio Dakolias, CC 2023

Comparing Corporate Social Impact With Environmental, Social, And Governance Performance
Malia Dills, CC 2023

Approaches to Addressing the Sargassum Problem and Quantifying Anthropogenic Seaweed’s Climate Impact
Marie Febrillet, GS 2023

Influencing Consumption With Community-Based Food Education
Heidi Lichtl, CC 2023

Economic and Environmental Impacts of Mining on Local Communities in Peru
Kiara Ordóñez Olazábal, CC 2023

The Impact of the Russo-Ukrainian War on the Environment: Fires in the Kyiv Oblast
Justas Pakašius, GS 2023

New Jersey's Climate Change Education Standards in K-12: A Case Study from Mercer County, NJ
Iynul Rizwan, GS 2023

Effect of Meditation on Sustainable-Behavior Traits
Shulin Zhang, GS 2023

De Abajo Arriba: Engaging Local Farmer Knowledge to Inform Index Insurance Design in Guatemala
Lauren Apollaro, CC 2022

Investigating the Effect of Socioeconomic Indicators on the Frequency of Invasive Grasses in the Sonoran Desert (AZ)
Ian Christensen, GS 2022

Adapt Through Protest: Community Mobilization, Adaptive Capacity and Water Scarcity in Draa-Tafilalet, Morocco
Benjamin Dahan, GS 2022

Walkability and Environmental Impact Analysis & Recommendations for The Brunswick Landing: Maine's Center for Innovation
Lily Friedland, CC 2022

Agricultural Adjustment: The Origins of Farm Subsidies in the United States
Nicholas Kime, CC 2022

Religious Environmentalisms: Perspectives of Muslims in the United States
Isadora Muszkat, GS 2022

Impacts of NOx and PM2.5 in Nairobi, Kenya, as Measured by Low Cost and Reference Air Monitors
Savannah Ward, CC 2022

Sino-Kazakh Energy Relationship: How Sustainable Is It?
Jiashi Yang, CC 2022

The Role of US Cities in Reducing Electric Vehicle Costs: A Total Cost of Ownership Analysis
Sophia Ahmed, CC 2021

The Just Transition in Practice: A Case Study of Tonawanda, New York
Emily Garfunkel, GS 2021

California-China Climate Partnership: A Case of Subnational Cooperation
Alice Jetin, GS 2021

Businesses as Agents of Social Change Towards Sustainability: How May 'Corporate Social Responsibility' and 'Total Societal Impact' Influence Employee Behavior?
Isobel Miles, CC 2021

Doughnut Pharmacy: Comparing Walgreens Corporate Social Responsibility Goals With Their Food Products
Christopher Parent, GS 2021

Factors Influencing Resource Access for Latinx Undocumented Immigrants During the COVID-19 Pandemic in NYC
Alejandro Velasquez, CC 2021

Examining Characteristics of Communities Close to Hydraulic Fracturing
Jeremy Zimmerman, GS 2021

Modeling Forest Carbon Sequestration to Estimate the Albedo-Sequestration Tradeoff Boundary for Boreal Afforestation: An exploration of structural and environmental factors
Maxwell Goodman, GS 2020

How Social Networks Impact the Use of Preventive Practices Against Ticks and Lyme Disease on Staten Island
Cyrus Hadavi, CC 2020

The New York City Watershed: A Budget of Demand, Supply and the Sustainability of the Big Apple's Water System
Juan Martinez, GS 2020

Gender Roles in Bollywood Film (1950-2018)
Priya Mishra, CC 2020

Comparing New York City Park User Perceptions with Urban  Sustainability Planning Discourse
Carla Singson, CC 2020

Feasibility of Introducing Synthetic Methane to the Natural Gas Grid through Power-to-Gas Plants in New York State
Chelsea Jean-Michel, CC 2019

Mapping Food Justice in Paterson, New Jersey
Mary Bannister, GS 2019

Climate Change Policy and the 2018 Midterm Elections: Are Candidates Who Take Stronger Positions on Climate Change More Likely to Win?
Alexander Loznak, CC 2019

Weathering Sandy: The Flood Risk Perceptions of the Coastal Elderly
Elise Gout, CC 2019

Fragmentation and Lack of Transparency: Challenges in Adapting a Carbon-Market Approach to China's Political System
Xinyi Gu, GS 2019

Barriers to Electricity Access in Nicaragua
Jesse Thorson, CC 2018

Targeted Climate Change Tactics Based on State-Level Data
Abigail Sharkey, CC 2018

Internet.org’s “Free Basics”: Can Free Internet Initiatives Improve the Lives of Kenya’s Rural Poor?
Chisom Onyea, CC 2018

“We call them polimigra”: Crimmigration, Disciplinary Power, and New York State Farmworkers
Sam Goldberg, CC 2018

Citizenship Rights and Sustainability for Tibetan Refugees in India
Abhinav Seetharaman, CC 2018

COFFEE DREAMSCAPES: Reimagining Geographies of the Global Coffee Supply Chain in an Age of Climate Change
MJ Engel, CC 2017

Before and After Sandy: The Role of Social Capital in Disaster Recovery
Elana Sulakshana, CC 2017

The Efficacy of Low-Cost Air Monitors in Measuring Particulate Matter Concentrations on New York City Streets
Jonathan Young, CC 2017