Alan was instructor of ENSC 1: Introduction to Environmental Sciences; ENSC 222: Pollution Ecology; and NR 270: Toxic/Hazardous Substances in Surface Waters.

His research interests focused on the fate and effects of toxic contaminants in freshwater ecosystems with particular interest in the mechanisms involved in sediment contamination, including uptake of sediment-associated contaminants and impacts of these sediments on aquatic communities. Additional interests included the use of stream benthic macroinvertebrates as indicators of pollution.