Michael Charles

Cornell Provost’s New Faculty Fellow and Assistant Professor, Biological and Environmental Engineering

About

Dr. Michael Charles (he/him/his) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University, an Affiliate Faculty of the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program, and a Faculty Fellow of the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. He received his B.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE) from Cornell University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in CBE from The Ohio State University. As a postdoctoral researcher, he worked at the Newark Earthworks Center at The Ohio State University at Newark studying the history of Land Grant Universities and their relationships to Indigenous Dispossession in North America. His expertise involves developing computational sustainability frameworks that include dynamic ecological models and telling data-driven stories that advocate for underrepresented communities. As a Diné (Navajo) scholar, he’s dedicated to forming mutually respectful partnerships with Indigenous communities. His vision is to combine computational methods with community-centered relationships to translate his research into action. At Cornell University, the Charles Research Group is particularly interested in the vital role that landscapes can play in addressing complex sustainability challenges and how ecosystem services promote well-being to the human population. Along with his research, he works with the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change to advocate for Indigenous rights, leadership, and self-determination within UN Climate Negotiations. Although his interests and advocacy transcend many disciplines and labels, most of his work is focused on increasing Indigenous representation in academia, policy, and social movements in the pursuit of justice and collective liberation.

Recent Research

The Charles Research Group is particularly interested in the vital role that landscapes can play in addressing complex sustainability challenges and how ecosystem services promote well-being to the human population. The dynamic interactions between these social, ecological and technological elements across space and time continue to provide interesting research challenges in the modeling, simulation, and optimization of such systems.

Understanding the limits of computational approaches, the Charles lab is also committed to working with communities of practice (non-academic communities) to explore how computational results can lead to transformed behavior, practice, and policy. Particularly, we are interested in building relationships and collaborating with Indigenous Nations as we can explore the interface of multiple knowledge systems (i.e. institutionalized science and Indigenous knowledge) and work directly with community leaders or Tribal governments to execute any community-determined actionable steps. These relationships also lead to research projects that aim to meet community-identified needs, broadening the applications of the computational approaches developed in the lab.

Current projects include:

Resilient Food & Water Systems

Downscaling climate and crop models to evaluate drought risk, climate impacts, and irrigation tradeoffs
AI-assisted, optimization-driven tools for agricultural water management
Atmospheric water harvesting and off-grid energy-water infrastructure
Food system modeling, nutrition-deficit mapping, and demographic health and economic analyses

Sustainable Energy & Material Transitions

Mineral mapping and supply-chain analysis for renewable energy technologies
Techno-economic and life-cycle assessment of emerging energy systems
Optimization of green hydrogen production and supply-chain networks
Evaluating economic, environmental, and equity tradeoffs of energy transitions

Landscapes, Air Quality & Public Health

Nature-based solutions for air pollution mitigation and climate co-benefits
Integrated atmospheric-ecological-epidemiological modeling frameworks
Spatial optimization of land-use change for health and economic outcomes

Additional & Cross-Cutting Projects

Participatory AI and natural language processing for community research synthesis
Community-defined research atlases, statistical summaries, and data sovereignty tools

Courses Taught

Professor Charles teaches courses that connect engineering fundamentals with informed decision-making in complex, real-world contexts. His teaching emphasizes systematic problem solving, systems thinking, and the ability to interpret quantitative results and communicate sustainability challenges with transparency and clarity. In Sustainable Engineering Thermodynamics, students learn core thermodynamic principles while evaluating the theoretical limits and design opportunities of engineered systems. In Engineering Sustainability, students integrate ecological, industrial, and economic perspectives through systems modeling and life cycle analysis, culminating in project-based sustainability assessments that apply quantitative tools to contemporary sustainability challenges.

His courses include:

BEE 2220 Sustainable Engineering Thermodynamics
BEE 4830/6830 Engineering Sustainability

Contact Information

mtc58 [at] cornell.edu

- Charles Lab
- Michael Charles Cornell Engineer - Video

Michael in the news

A participant immersing themselves in Black Spaces Matter, a traveling exhibition curated by Pamela Karimi that explores the historical post-industrial city of New Bedford (2017–2019).

News

March 7, 2025

Cornell faculty honored for community-engaged innovation

Thirteen faculty members from across Cornell are being honored by the Einhorn Center for Community Engagement with this year’s Community-Engaged Practice and Innovation Awards.

Biological and Environmental Engineering
Energy
Climate Change

News

October 15, 2024

Engaged faculty network grows with 28 new fellows

Fellows will spend the year developing a community-engaged course, project or publication, while also joining a network of scholars committed to advancing the university’s public engagement mission.

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
School of Integrative Plant Science
Plant Breeding and Genetics Section