Cristina Negri
Cristina Negri, principal agronomist/environmental engineer in Energy Systems will discuss her Laboratory-Directed Research and Development (LDRD) sponsored work at the inaugural LDRD Seminar Series presentation Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016.
“From Fairy Circles to Green Roofs” will begin at 12:30 p.m. in the Bldg. 203 Auditorium. All are welcome to attend.
The LDRD Seminar Series will feature lead principal investigators in their second or third year of LDRD projects. In addition to providing interested employees with an overview of forefront research projects, the series will serve as a review tool for the LDRD program.
Fairy circles are circular patterns of vegetation observed in dry ecosystems in Africa and Australia, believed to be the result of self-organization devised by vegetation to adapt to a scarce water supply.
An Argonne team is collaborating with scientists at Ben Gurion University in Israel, who have been leading efforts to mathematically describe this pattern and have a working model of root development in desert climates. This research may lead to the development of sustainable agro-ecological and green infrastructure projects such as green roofs — buildings topped with vegetation that can provide insulation, create wildlife habitat and lower urban air temperatures.
Negri’s presentation will discuss the methods and results to date in the development of primary data on plant-soil-water relationships in a man-made system: an existing green roof at the Chicago Botanic Garden. These data are used to validate the Ben Gurion University model described above. Through this work, the project members seek to develop knowledge to better support the design of water- and energy-efficient systems not only in arid regions but also in green infrastructure concepts which are becoming increasingly necessary to handle the unpredictable precipitation patterns caused by climate change.
During her more than 20 years at Argonne, Negri conducted and directed laboratory to full-scale multidisciplinary projects developing technologies and concepts for environmental remediation and stewardship, including soil remediation and water treatment. She has researched sustainable technologies for urban environmental improvement. Negri also works on the integration of bioenergy within working agricultural landscapes to address the food, energy, water and land nexus.
Negri is a senior fellow with the Energy Policy Institute at the Harris School and a fellow of the Institute of Molecular Engineering, both at the University of Chicago. She is also a fellow of the Northwestern University-Argonne Institute of Science and Engineering. She earned her Dottore in Scienze Agrarie (Agricultural Sciences) degree at the University of Milan in Milan, Italy.