IEC supports the research and educational initiatives of the College of Staten Island’s Environmental Science Master’s Degree Program and the Center for Environmental Science. The IEC staff mentor students by involving them in water quality research that is integral to their thesis work and by performing equipment demonstrations for Environmental Chemistry classes.

Recent projects that included collaboration between student thesis work and IEC include a pathogen trackdown project along the Second River, in New Jersey, and a study of the impact of superstorm Sandy on freshwater ponds in the Gateway National Recreation Area.

IEC also assists College of Staten Island researchers by performing analyses on environmental samples, including trace metal analyses on water, sediments and biota collected from Staten Island marches to assess pathways and mechanisms of the trophic transfer of metals in the ecosystem.