Research Champions

The Research Champions within the Sustainable Communities Research Community are subject experts who are spear-heading research community initiatives and support the formation of research teams, communication of funding opportunities, facilitate the recruitment of external partners and assist with communication within the communities. 
 Additional Content 

Dr. Mario Bretfeld

Dr. Mario Bretfeld

Associate Professor of Biology

  • Dr. Mario Bretfeld studied Landscape Ecology at the Carl-von-Ossietzky University of Oldenburg and received a Ph.D. in Biological Education in 2014 at the University of Northern Colorado. 

    After graduation, Dr. Bretfeld moved to Panama as part of a post-doctoral fellowship with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and the University of Wyoming to quantify the impacts of different types of land use on the water cycle. In August 2019, he joined the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology at Kennesaw State University. 

    His research utilized a first-principles approach to understand the ecology and physiology of plants based on physical laws and principles. At KSU, his research is focused on native plant conservation (SEPAL) and controlled environment agriculture. 

Dr. Mahyar Amirgholy

Associate Professor of Civil Engineering

  • Dr. Mahyar Amirgholy is an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering in the Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology at Kennesaw State University and a Research Affiliate at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

    Prior to joining KSU, he was a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Cornell University. He received his Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a focus on Transportation Systems from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Dr. Amirgholy is a recipient of the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) Milton Pikarsky Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation in Science and Technology. His research primarily focuses on the modeling and optimization of large-scale transportation systems.

Mahyar Amirgholy