Environmental Engineering

The Environmental Engineering program is part of the Environmental Engineering and Sustainability cluster, which also includes 1) the Nanoscale Interactions program; and 2) the Environmental Sustainability program. Environmental engineering is an interdisciplinary field that applies chemical, biological, and physical scientific principles to protect human and ecological health. The goal of the Environmental Engineering program is tosupport potentially transformative fundamental research that applies scientific and engineering principles to 1) prevent, minimize, or re-use solid, liquid, and gaseous discharges of pollution to soil, water, and air by closing resource loops or through other measures; 2) mitigate the ecological and human-health impacts of such releases by smart/adaptive/reactive amendments or manipulation of the environment, and 3) remediate polluted environments through engineered chemical, biological, and/or geo-physical processes. Integral to achieving these goals is a fundamental understanding of the transport and biogeochemical reactivity of pollutants in the environment. Therefore, research on environmental micro/biology, environmental chemistry, and environmental geophysics may be relevant providing the research has a clear objective of protecting human and ecological health. Major areas of interest include (but are not limited to): Building afuture without pollution or waste: Investigation of innovative biogeochemical processes that prevent or minimize the production of waste; waste valorization and other research that will lead to new technologies toextract resources from waste streams to close the resource loop. Sustainable supply and protection ofwater: Investigation of innovative biogeochemical processesthat remove, biologically or chemically transform, and/or prevent therelease of contaminants in surface and groundwater; innovative processesfor recovery of water, nutrients, and other resources from wastewater,saline water, or brines; i