Cristina Negri is the Director of the Environmental Science (EVS) Division overseeing environmental research conducted by approximately 160 staff and collaborators. Her current interests are in leading the development and execution of the Division’s strategic programmatic direction inclusive of a diverse research portfolio in environmental sciences. In her more than 30 years as a scientist at Argonne, she conducted and directed laboratory to full-scale multidisciplinary projects developing technologies and concepts for environmental remediation and stewardship, including soil remediation and water treatment. She has researched sustainable technologies for the environmental improvement of urban and agricultural processes.

Cristina’s research to integrate bioenergy within working agricultural landscapes addresses the food, energy, water, and land nexus. Her work focuses on developing sustainable, multifunctional landscape concepts, which aim, by design, at the creation of ecosystems services. Her interests are in systems approaches where industrial ecology concepts are applied to water and land management and green infrastructure.

Cristina is a Fellow with CASE at the University of Chicago. She is also a Fellow of the Northwestern University—Argonne Institute of Science and Engineering. She earned her Dottore in Scienze Agrarie Degree (Agricultural Sciences) at the University of Milan in Milan, Italy.

Prior to joining Argonne, Cristina worked in private industry in Italy as a research and development manager and as a liaison with universities and other Italian national research organizations. Her research focused on developing methods for the sustainable, beneficial reuse of industrial and urban waste and for pollution mitigation in agriculture. She also served as the Convener of a CEN (the European Standardization Organization) Working Group, leading experts from European Union Nations toward the creation of European environmental standards for agricultural commodities.

Education

University of Milan, Italy, 1981 (Dottore in Scienze Agrarie)

Select Awards, Honors, and Memberships

• Soil Science Society of America, AAAS 
• Argonne Chief Research Officer Council member, 2017-2019
• Argonne National Laboratory Women in Science and Technology Program Initiator, 2007-2010, Acting Initiator, 2013
• WIST Diversity Award, Argonne National Laboratory, 2014
• Outstanding Postdoctoral Mentor Award Honorable Mention, Argonne National Laboratory, 2013

Select Publications

• Zumpf, C., J. Cacho, N. Grasse, J. Quinn, J. Marcel-Hamilton, A. Armstrong, P. Campbell, M.C. Negri, and D.K. Lee, 2021, Influence of Shrub Willow Buffers Strategically Integrated in an Illinois Corn-Soybean Field on Soil Health and Microbial Community Composition: Science of the Total Environment: Volume 772.  https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​1​6​/​j​.​s​c​i​t​o​t​e​n​v​.​2​0​2​1​.​1​45674
• Mishra, S.K., M.C. Negri, J. Kozak, J. Cacho, J. Quinn, S. Secchi, and H. Ssegane, 2019, Valuation of Ecosystem Services in Alternative Bioenergy Landscape Scenarios: Global Change Biology Bioenergy, 11:748–762. 
• Zalesny, R.S., et al., 2019, Positive Water Linkages of Producing Short Rotation Poplars and Willows for Bioenergy and Phytotechnologies: WIREs Energy and Environment, e245, 20 pp.
• Efroymson, R., M. Langholtz, K. Johnson. C. Negri, A. Turhollow, K. Kline, I. Bonner, and V. Dale (2017) Synthesis, interpretation, and Strategies to enhance environmental outcomes. In: 2016 Billion Ton Report, Volume 2, Chapter 14. January 2017, U.S. Department of Energy.
• Urgun-Demirtas, M. C. Negri, M., P. Gillenwater, A. G. Agwu Nnanna and J. Yu. Meeting world’s most stringent Hg criterion: A pilot-study for the treatment of oil refinery wastewater using an ultrafiltration membrane process. J. Environmental Management, in press.