Please send me an e-mail ([email protected]) if you are interested in gaining research experience in any of these current topics of interest!
Biogeochemistry of Rural to Urban Streams

Many streams in near Villanova’s campus traverse a rural to urban gradient and offer an ideal opportunity to examine the relationship between land use practices and water quality. Research in the Goldsmith Laboratory has focused on determining the sources and fate of contaminants in these systems (including road salt, metals, nutrients, sediments, macroplastics/litter, and emerging contaminants) and devolving practical solutions to ameliorate the associated impacts. Through collaborations with local water utilities (Aqua Pennsylvania), watershed conservation organizations (the Lower Merion Conservancy and the Guardians of the Brandywine), and governmental agencies (United States Geological Survey), students are able to ask questions of environmental significance while gaining real-world problem solving experience. Recent conservation focused research has been funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
Related Publications/Presentations:
(‡ Student author)
‡Rossi, M. L., Kremer, P., Cravotta, C. A., Sing, K. E., and Goldsmith, S. T. (2023). Land development and road-salt usage drive long-term changes in major-ion chemistry of streamwater in six exurban and suburban watersheds, Southeastern Pennsylvania, 1999–2019. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 851, 157933.
‡Rossi, M. L., Kremer, P., Cravotta, C. A., Scheirer, K. E., and Goldsmith, S. T. (2022). Long-term impacts of impervious surface cover change and roadway deicing agent application on chloride concentrations in exurban and suburban watersheds. Science of the Total Environment, 851, 157933.
‡Cruz, Y.D., ‡Rossi, M.L., and Goldsmith, S.T., 2022, Impacts of road deicing application on sodium and chloride concentrations in Philadelphia region drinking water. GeoHealth, e2021GH000538.
Goldsmith, S.T., ‡Hanley, K.M., ‡Waligroski, G.J., Wagner, E.J., Boschi, V.L., and Grannas, A.M., 2020, Triclosan export from low-volume sources in an urban to rural watershed, Science of the Total Environment, 720: 135380.
‡Sebastiao, A.G., Wagner, E., and Goldsmith, S.T., Trace Metal Sediment Loading in the Mill Creek: A Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Vehicular Pollutants in Suburban Waterways, Applied Geochemistry, doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeochem.2017.04.001.
River Inputs to Nearshore Coral Reefs in Puerto Rico

Rivers transport excess nutrients, sediments, plastics, litter and other pollutants from land to the coast causing both acute and chronic stress to coral reef ecosystems. To address this problem, dry- and wet-season analyses of river pollutants and associated measurements in nearshore coral reef health in the Guánica region of Puerto Rico are being conducted. These efforts are designed to support effective watershed management and healthy coral reef ecosystems. This work entails a collaboration with Dr. Lisa Rodrigues in the Department of Geography and the Environment at Villanova University. Associated studies have been funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Related Publications/Presentations:
(‡ Student author)
Rodrigues, L.J., Blemker, S.R., Frangos, S.C., De Jesus, B., Soler, I.R., Ríos, R.V., and Goldsmith, S.T., 2022, Bioaccumulation of trace metals in two oyster species from southwest Puerto Rico, Marine Pollution Bulletin, 178, 113581.
‡Papotto, J, Rodrigues, L.J., ‡Seibert, E.M., Wagner, E.J., and Goldsmith, S.T., 2021, Spatial controls on riverbed sediment chemistry in three anthropogenically modified tropical mountainous watersheds, International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, DOI: 10.1007/s13762-021-03155-y.
‡Korman L.B., Goldsmith, S.T., Wagner, E.J, and Rodrigues, L.J., 2020, Spatially Distributed Simulations of Dry and Wet Season Sediment Yields: A Case Study in the Lower Rio Loco Watershed, Puerto Rico, Journal of South American Earth Sciences, 103, 102717.
Rodrigues, L.J., Goertz, S., Dempsey, K., Markley, C., Ghorpade, A., Bruffey, B., Wilm, C., Chase, C., and Goldsmith, S.T. (2024), Breaking it down: Comparing in situ rates of degradation of debris in tropical and temperate environments, CE41A-04 presented at Ocean Science Meeting 2024, 18-23 Feb.
Rios, S., Goldsmith, S.T., Gonzalez, M., Padilla, G., Ramos, I., Ríos, R.V., Chase, T., and Rodrigues, L.J. (2024), Research for and by the People: Understanding Marine Debris in Southwest Puerto Rico, ED14C-0051 presented at Ocean Science Meeting 2024, 18-23 Feb.
An immersive urban environmental geochemistry research experience as a pathway to careers in the geosciences

Urban communities often suffer the greatest damage from poor water, air, and soil quality. Geoscience programs, including the environmental sciences, are the foundation for jobs tasked with remedying these problems; however, the racially minoritized residents who disproportionately experience environmental burdens are vastly underrepresented in these fields. This National Science Foundation funded partnership with Walter B. Saul High School in Philadelphia uses and immersive, locally based, culturally responsive research experience in urban environmental geochemistry, through an environmental justice lens, to broaden a pathway to the geosciences for underrepresented minoritized students. Students are engaged though both school-based active learning modules and a solutions-based summer research experience carried out alongside Villanova undergraduate students.
Related Publications/Presentations:
(‡ Student author)
‡Feldman, H., Marco-Bujosa, L., Goldsmith, S.T., Shakya, K.M., Boschi, V., Lepkowski, J., and Smith, N. (2024) Empowering urban high school students in geoscience through school-based instructional modules: “It’s like they’re the trees and we’re the fungi”, American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting (April 2024).
†Feldman, H.Z., Goldsmith, S.T., Shakya, K.M., Boschi, V.L., and Marco-Bujosa, L.M. (2023), An immersive urban environmental geochemistry research experience at the high school level as a pathway to the geosciences, Abstracts with Programs – Geological Society of America. Vol 53, No. 6. doi:10.1130/abs/2023AM-391768.
Marco-Bujosa, L., Goldsmith, S.T., Shakya, K.M., and Boschi, V., (2022), GeoPATHS: A High School Intervention to Promote Urban Environmental Justice, North American Association for Environmental Education Annual Conference (October 2022).