David M. Kahler

Dr. Kahler teaches fundamental environmental science courses at Duquesne University. His research is in hydrology, primarily for use in international development.

Prior to joining the CERE faculty as a full-time professor in Fall 2017, Dr. Kahler was a postdoctoral fellow in the Water and Health in Limpopo, South Africa (WHIL) Innovation Program at the University of Virginia (UVA). His primary research at UVA was point-of- use drinking water treatment and water security in rural developing regions. An integral component of his international water security research focuses on the human right to water and water rights; this work is a collaboration with the University of Venda, South Africa. Prior to his research fellowship, he held an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship and at the Office of Water in the U.S. Agency for International Development. At USAID, Dr. Kahler focused on higher education partnerships between schools in the U.S. and partner countries on water and sanitation, and water resources. Additionally, David worked on agricultural water resources sustainability and was the technical representative for Securing Water for Food, a Grand Challenge for Development, a collaborative effort between the United States, Sweden, and The Netherlands.

Dr. Kahler earned his Ph.D. from Duke University in 2011. His dissertation research focused on the acceleration of pump-and-treat remediation by rapidly pulsed pumping. This work focused on pore-scale fluid mechanics. During graduate school, he was a part of a NSF Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 STEM Education program. Through this program, he assisted in a sixth-grade science classroom and ran an after school program that focused on technology encountered in everyday life. He also taught environmental engineering for two summer programs in India.

In his M.S. research at Cornell University, Dr. Kahler studied trends in observed evapotranspiration and precipitation, the so-called evaporation paradox. Through different measurement techniques, he determined that pan evaporation does not measure evaporation and even can show the opposite trend than actual evaporation. Dr. Kahler’s was graduated with a B.A. in Physics and Mathematics with a minor in Environmental Studies from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. He spent most of his undergraduate summers as a Ranger at Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico.