IALC Member Institution

Nevada System of Higher Education Reno, Nevada

The Desert Research Institute (DRI) is the environmental research division of the Nevada System of Higher Education , conducting some 150 projects annually across the U.S. and internationally. DRI's administrative headquarters are located in Reno, Nevada.

Arid Lands Expertise at the Desert Research Institute

Since its establishment in 1959, DRI has grown to be one of the world's largest multidisciplinary environmental research organizations focusing on arid lands. Its research activities are directed from five research centers representing the geosphere (Quaternary Sciences Center), hydrosphere (Water Resources Center), biosphere (Biological Sciences Center), and atmosphere (Atmospheric Sciences Center and Energy and Environmental Engineering Center). Operating from these statewide facilities, multidisciplinary teams drawn from DRI's staff of nearly 400 address basic and applied research problems on a project-by-project basis.

Research areas at DRI include:

• Air Quality Modeling and Impact Assessment
• Ambient Air and Source Sampling
• Anthropology and Archeological Research
• Applied Environmental Studies
• Atmospheric Chemistry
• Atmospheric and Dispersion Modeling
• Chemical and Physical Analysis
• Climate Dynamics
• Contaminant Transport
• Cultural and Paleontological Applications of Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
• Dendroecology
• Digital Imaging
• Ecosystem Analysis and Modeling
• Emission Inventory
• Field Study Design and Management
• Geomorphology
• Global Environmental Hydrology
• Hydrogeology Controls on Availability and Quality of Ground Water
• Hydrology of the Unsaturated Zone
• Integrated Watershed Systems
• Large-Scale Dynamic Meteorology
• Mesoscale Dynamic Meteorology
• Microbial Ecology
• Natural Resource Management
• Nutrient Cycling
• Paleoecology and Paleoclimatology
• Paleoenvironmental Research
• Physical Meteorology
• Plant Physiological Ecology
• Quality Assurance
• Quaternary Chronology
• Recent Environmental Studies
• Remote Sensing
• Soil Chemistry and Fertility
• Soil Ecology
• Spatial Analysis
• Western History

Visit the DRI Web site