Michael C. Slattery

Professor, Department Chair and Director of the Institute for Environmental Studies Texas Christian University

  • Fort Worth TX

Mike has worked in diverse landscapes ranging from the Namib Desert in southern Africa to the cloud forests of Costa Rica.

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Biography

Professor Mike Slattery is Director of the Institute for Environmental Studies and Lead Scientist on the TCU-Oxford-Nextera Wind Research Initiative at Texas Christian University. Originally from South Africa, he is an internationally-trained geographer and environmental scientist: his Bachelor’s is from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Masters from the University of Toronto, Canada, and Ph.D. from the University of Oxford, England. He has written more than 70 scientific articles, published a book on environmental issues, and has testified before the U.S. Congress. In 2007 he was awarded the Dean’s Research and Creative Activity Award at TCU. He serves on the editorial board of the Annals of the Association of American Geographers and on the executive research board of the Texas Institute.

Mike has worked in diverse landscapes ranging from the Namib Desert in southern Africa to the cloud forests of Costa Rica. In 2008 he helped establish a research station and several biodiversity and conservation programs in Costa Rica, including a Green Macaw Protection Initiative. His research expertise is on human impact on the environment, especially river systems, and he teaches courses on the environment, soils, hydrology, and climate. He lives in Fort Worth.

Areas of Expertise

Mercury Contamination from Coal-fired Power Plants
Wind Research
Rhino Conservation
Human Impact to Coastal Plains, Rivers and Sediment Pathways

Accomplishments

Texas Sierra Club Special Service Award

2018

Association of International Educators (NAFSA) Senator Paul Simon Spotlight Award for TCU Rhino Initiative

2017

College of Science and Engineering Award for Distinguished Achievement as a Creative Teacher and Scholar (Chancellor’s Award Finalist)

2017

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Education

St. John's College and School of Geography, University of Oxford

D.Phil

1994

Department of Geography, University of Toronto

M.Sc.

1990

University of the Witwatersrand

B.A. (Hons.)

Physical Geography

1988

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Affiliations

  • American Geophysical Union
  • Association of American Geographers
  • Geological Society of America
  • British Geomorphological Research Group
  • British Hydrological Society
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Media Appearances

Rhino Poacher Killed by Elephant and Eaten by Lions, Officials Say

The New York Times  

2019-04-07

“It’s one of the most expensive wildlife products on the illegal market and that’s why these poachers go after it,” Michael Slattery, founder of the Texas Christian University Rhino Initiative, said on Sunday. “The current prices for a rhino horn are anywhere from $15,000 to $50,000 a kilogram. They are seeing dollar signs. It is more expensive than gold and cocaine, so the demand is driving these poachers.”...

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Climate for Change

Fort Worth Weekly  

2019-08-28

Not so, says Michael Slattery, TCU professor and director of the Institute for Environmental Studies. The scholar and environmental scientist has served on the university’s faculty for more than 20 years. In that time, he has seen the campus and Fort Worth as a whole make important strides toward sustainability. The sprawling campus now uses state-of-the-art insulation, and any new buildings must meet rigorous environmental guidelines, he said...

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TCU Rhino Initiative charges forward to stop poaching

TCU 360  

2016-01-28

Dr. Michael Slattery, director of the Institute for Environmental Studies, launched the Rhino Initiative in 2014 as part of TCU’s Global Innovator program.

“Even though it seems like [rhino poaching] is a problem in another country so far away and we’re not touched by it, it is a global problem,” Slattery said. “If we lose this species, then what’s the next species?”...

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Event Appearances

The African Rhino Conservation Collaboration (ARCC): An update from the field

American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, New Orleans, 2018  

Quantifying changes in near-surface soil moisture and temperature during prescribed fire under three fuel loads

9th International Conference on Geomorphology, New Delhi, India, 2017  

The African Rhino Conservation Collaboration (ARCC): A strategy to protect rhino in the Eastern Cape of South Africa

American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Boston, 2017  

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Research Grants

Local community-based rhino protection, conservation training and education

Disney Conservation Fund

2017
Co-Pi with Dr. Tory Bennett – under review

TCU Visiting Scholars Award

Texas Christian University

2016
With Kathy Cavins-Tull

TCU Instructional/equipment grant for Costa Rica weather station

Texas Christian University

2016
With Dean Williams

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Articles

Near-surface soil moisture dynamics in a prairie hillslope seep/headwater stream system in Texas, USA

Physical Geography

2020

This 20-month study of a prairie hillslope seep system builds upon and extends the soil moisture record from a previous study conducted during the most extreme drought ever recorded in Texas. We seek to improve understanding of how prolonged drought impacts seep-headwater hydrology, and to determine how well dominant vegetation reflects changes in volumetric soil moisture (θv).

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Grand challenges in the science of wind energy

Science

2019

A growing global population and an increasing demand for energy services are expected to result in substantially greater deployment of clean energy sources. Wind energy is already playing a role as a mainstream source of electricity, driven by decades of scientific discovery and technology development. Additional research and exploration of design options are needed to drive innovation to meet future demand and functionality.

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Sediment Source Fingerprinting: Transforming From a Research Tool to a Management Tool

AWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association

Mukundan, R., Walling, D.E., Gellis, A.C., Slattery, M.C. and Radcliffe, D.E.

2012

Information on the nature and relative contribution of different watershed sediment sources is recognized as a key requirement in the design and implementation of targeted management strategies for sediment control. A direct method of assessing sediment sources in a watershed that has attracted attention in recent years is sediment fingerprinting. The aim of this article is to describe the development of sediment fingerprinting as a research tool and to consider how the method might be transformed from a research tool to a management tool within a regulatory framework, with special reference to the United States total maximum daily load (TMDL) program. When compared with the current source assessment tools in developing sediment TMDLs, sediment fingerprinting offers considerable improvement as a tool for quantifying sources of sediment in terms of source type (e.g., channel vs. hillslope) as well as spatial location (subwatershed). While developing a conceptual framework for sediment TMDLs, we recognize sediment fingerprinting along with sediment budgeting and modeling as valuable tools in the TMDL process for developing justifiable sediment TMDLs. The discussions presented in this article may be considered as a first step toward streamlining the sediment fingerprinting approach for its wider application in a regulatory framework.

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