Principles of Environmental Science

About the Author

William Cunningham

Mary Cunningham

Mary Ann Cunningham teaches geography and geographic information systems (GIS), and environmental studies at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY. Her research involves using GIS to assess landscape-level problems in conservation and biodiversity. In particular, she is interested in understanding the nature of fragmentation in grassland environments and the effects of fragmentation on the make-up of bird communities. The agricultural landscapes where she has been working represent a complex and fascinating interaction of issues concerning working landscapes, resource use, remnant wildlife habitat, and landscape aesthetics. It is at the intersection of these issues that she likes to try and understand the geography of physical environments. Mary Ann earned a PhD in Geography at the University of Minnesota, an MA in Geography at the University of Oregon, and a BA in Geology at Carleton College.

Catherine O'Reilly

Catherine O’Reilly is a professor in the Department of Geography, Geology, and the Environment at Illinois State University. She has taught courses in natural disasters, environmental geology, and ecology. She is inspired to create
opportunities for students to experience science by doing it, through working in the field, the laboratory, or analyzing data to explore environmental concepts. Both her courses and her research highlight how human activities interact with earth processes.
Her research focuses on impacts of human activities on lakes and rivers, focusing on the effects of climate change and land use patterns such as agriculture and urbanization. With her students, she has studied the impacts on climate change and deforestation on Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania and agricultural impacts on water quality in the midwestern USA. She was a member of the 2007 IPCC, which shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.