Dr. Hongbing Sun received his doctorate from Florida State University in 1995, specializing in hydrology and water and soil quality related issues. He currently holds the rank of Professor of Geological and Environmental Sciences. Hongbing’s broad research interests include environmental health, hydrogeology, soil science and quality, and coastal oceanography. His current research focus involves issues related to the mobilization or arsenic, lead, and mercury due to the application of winter road salt, the associations of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases with soil selenium, sulfur, and other anti-oxidants, and the association of multiple sclerosis with temperature-heat events. Most recently, Hongbing has been investigating the impact of water contamination (heavy metals and organophosphate pesticide) in the Mississippi and Delaware Rivers on the prevalence of hypertension and colon cancer in those watersheds, and the relationship among blood mercury and lead, and liver function-biomarkers with environmental exposure to those elements.
Primary Teaching Responsibilities
- Hydrology and Water Resources
- Soils and Surficial Processes
- Introduction to Geographical Information Systems
- Environmental Toxicology
- Earth Materials and Processes Lab
- Environmental Geology
Selected Publication Titles and Sources
- Mobilization of arsenic, lead, and mercury under conditions of seawater intrusion and road deicing salt. Journal of Contaminant Hydrology.
- Associations of spatial disparities of Alzheimer/s disease mortality rates and soil selenium, sulfur concentrations, and four common risk factors in the United States. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.
- Association of soil selenium, strontium, and magnesium concentrations with Parkinson’s Disease mortality rates in the USA. Environmental Geochemistry and Health.
- Temperature dependence of multiple sclerosis mortality rates in the United States. Multiple Sclerosis Journal.
- A semi-analytical solution for slug tests in an unconfined aquifer considering unsaturated flow. Journal of Hydrology.
- Mineralogical and anthropogenic controls of stream water chemistry in salted watersheds. Applied Geochemistry.
- New equations for density, entropy, heat capacity, and potential temperature of a saline thermal fluid. Deep-Sea Research I.
- Land subsidence due to groundwater withdrawal: Potential damage of subsidence and sea level rise in southern New Jersey. Journal of Environmental Geology.
- A two-dimensional analytical solution of groundwater response to tidal loading in an estuary. Water Resources Research.