The interdisciplinary composition of DES faculty, including physical, life, and social scientists, results in a wide variety of research objectives and needs.  Students are often a critical part of this research and there are many opportunities (Student Research Opportunities).

Examples of DES Research:

• Assessing current heavy metal, PCB and PAH levels in Long Creek and a reference stream as a precursor to a larger study involving up to five urban impaired streams (UISs) and three reference streams in southern Maine.
• Assessing North America's first ever, sucessful mining project of a closed landfill.
• Development of novel methods for fine particle analysis to establish the appropriate methodologies and assess the need/market for indoor air quality sampling from Residential Wood Combustion (RWC) in Maine.
• Survey of heavy metal contamination in residential urban soils in New England including analyses of semi-volatile organics
  
• Examination of the relationship between degree of soil contamination, historical land use, and socioeconomic factors such as demographics and economics
• Examining the efficacy of mandatory retail take back of household hazardous waste collection
• Analyzing the relationship between metals and semi-volatile organic composition of suspended particulates and irritation responses in human lung cells. 
• Examine the relationship between environmental asthma triggers and the public school environment.
• Understanding the relationship between site plans and growth management with special emphasis on the use of stream buffers for riparian protection.
• Studying the approach to shared responsibility for managing electronic waste and the municipal waste attributes’ effects on household recycling rates of e-waste.
• The impact of recycling containers on household participation and recycling rates in North America
• To examine the land use and historical archaeology of Malaga Island, a historical African-American community in Casco Bay originally comprised of freed slaves.
• Researching local environmental change as a result of cultural and environmental factors.
• To examine the linkages between freshwater and marine systems through diadromous fishes.
• Facilitating the student-fueled restoration and monitoring of Sherman Marsh, Newcastle, Maine.