Patrick Louchouarn

Dr. Louchouarn joined The Ohio State University in 2022 as the senior vice provost for faculty. In this position, he leads the inaugural Office of Faculty Affairs at Ohio State. He is also a professor at the School of Earth Sciences. His multidisciplinary research focuses on understanding the impacts of environmental perturbations on biogeochemical cycling at ecosystem interfaces and addressing capacity building in earth and environmental education in diverse communities. The orientation of his research in biogeochemistry deals with: the identification of fire markers and combustion byproducts in complex environmental mixtures and their application to reconstructions of fire/combustion history, and natural and human-induced fluctuations in material fluxes within watersheds.  In parallel, to address issues of learning and thinking in the environmental sciences, Dr. Louchouarn incorporates this research into inquiry-based educational models that question how people learn and make decisions on environmental issues.