Featured Scholar: Gregory Druschel, PhD
Professor, IU School of Science
Community Partnerships as a Conduit from an Urban Field Camp to an Undergraduate Research Experience
Dr. Druschel has spent much of his career working at the intersection of geology, chemistry, and biology to understand better ways earth processes work and impact human society. As an NSF CAREER awardee this was solidified as he worked on specific mineral interactions with water and microbes but also found other avenues of inquiry in areas including water quality, mineral impacts on human health, and chemical signatures of life preserved in ancient rocks or other planets. Being at an Urban campus has shaped the way he views the environment as a setting, one where humans, both individually and as part of society, impact, and are impacted by, their surroundings. He has been developing ways to integrate teaching and research with communities and doing this in a way to bear in mind mutual benefit for our students and our communities.
Dr. Druschel's project to build and foster community trust in science and academic institutions through the Urban Field Camp is another example of how IU Indianapolis's faculty members are TRANSLATING their RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE.
Selected Publications in IU Indianapolis ScholarWorks
With several research works contributed to IU Indianapolis's free, open access repository, Dr. Druschel has made translational research knowledge available to professionals, researchers, students, and communities around the world.
Bailey, R., Filippelli, G., & Druschel, G. (2026). Assessing Nitrogen Risks in Urban Watersheds: Insights from the Upper White River in Marion County, Indiana. Water, Air, & Soil Pollution, 237(6), 353. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/55518
Trutschel, L., Kruger, B., Czaja, A., Brueck, M., Sackett, J., Druschel, G., & Rowe, A. (2025). Sulfide Oxidation Products Support Microbial Metabolism at Interface Environments in a Marine-Like Serpentinizing Spring in Northern California. Geobiology, 23(4), e70026. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/49454
Basinski, J. J., Bone, S. E., Klein, A. R., Thongsomboon, W., Mitchell, V., Shukle, J. T., Druschel, G. K., Thompson, A., & Aristilde, L. (2024). Unraveling iron oxides as abiotic catalysts of organic phosphorus recycling in soil and sediment matrices. Nature Communications, 15(1), 5930. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/43237
Kurek, M. R., Wickland, K. P., Nichols, N. A., McKenna, A. M., Anderson, S. M., Dornblaser, M. M., Koupaei-Abyazani, N., Poulin, B. A., Bansal, S., Fellman, J. B., Druschel, G. K., Bernhardt, E. S., & Spencer, R. G. M. (2024). Linking Dissolved Organic Matter Composition to Landscape Properties in Wetlands Across the United States of America. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 38(5), e2023GB007917. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/54931
Staker, J., Schott, S., Singh, R., Collier, K., Druschel, G., Siegel, A. P., & Tovar, A. (2024). Influence of Choline Chloride/Urea and Glycerol Plasticizers on the Mechanical Properties of Thermoplastic Starch Plastics. Polymers, 16(6), 751. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/41695
Heintzelman, A., Filippelli, G. M., Moreno-Madriñan, M. J., Wilson, J. S., Wang, L., Druschel, G. K., & Lulla, V. O. (2023). Efficacy of Low-Cost Sensor Networks at Detecting Fine-Scale Variations in Particulate Matter in Urban Environments. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(3), 1934. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/33886
Clercin, N. A., Koltsidou, I., Picard, C. J., & Druschel, G. K. (2022). Prevalence of Actinobacteria in the production of 2-methylisoborneol and geosmin, over Cyanobacteria in a temperate eutrophic reservoir. Chemical Engineering Journal Advances, 9, 100226. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/31199
Lueder, U., Maisch, M., Jørgensen, B. B., Druschel, G., Schmidt, C., & Kappler, A. (2022). Growth of microaerophilic Fe(II)-oxidizing bacteria using Fe(II) produced by Fe(III) photoreduction. Geobiology, 20(3), 421–434. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/40355
Ogashawara, I., Li, L., Howard, C., & Druschel, G. K. (2022). Monitoring Phycocyanin with Landsat 8/Operational Land Imager Orange Contra-Band. Environments, 9(3), 40. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/36957
Rowe, A., Urbanic, M., Trutschel, L., Shukle, J., Druschel, G., & Booth, M. (2022). Sediment Disturbance Negatively Impacts Methanogen Abundance but Has Variable Effects on Total Methane Emissions. Frontiers in Microbiology, 13. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/40417