Biography

Laura Gray is a Ph.D. student in the Energy-Water-Environment Sustainability program in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Her research is centered in urban studies and global climate modeling. She has a particular focus on the runoff reduction benefits associated with green stormwater infrastructure (GSI), in addition to how GSI can be represented in Earth system models to understand its performance across a wide variety of locations.

Laura completed her M.S. in Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2021, and her B.S. in Biological Engineering at the University of Arkansas in 2019 with minors in Sustainability and Mathematics. As an undergraduate researcher, she studied several topics within biological engineering and sustainability, such as the sizing and implementation of hydroponic agriculture systems on the local level, the antimicrobial properties of several medicinal fungal species, and the imaging of leukocyte cells utilizing MATLAB software. Laura loves traveling when she can, and can be frequently found haunting the local coffee shops.

Research Topics

Green stormwater infrastructure
Urban heat island
Low impact development

Publications

L.C. Gray, L. Zhao, and A.S. Stillwell. (2023). “Impacts of climate change on global total and urban runoff.” Journal of Hydrology, 620, 129352.

Education

M.S. in Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2021
B.S. in Biological Engineering, Sustainability and Mathematics minors, University of Arkansas, 2019

Awards

Grainger Engineering SURGE Fellow
Razorback Classic, University of Arkansas
Outstanding Senior, Arkansas ASABE