ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING AT CORNELL

We live at a time when no part of the natural environment is untouched by human activities.  Although we have made great strides in addressing many of the natural resources and environmental problems caused by many of these activities, growth in the world population and raising standards of living continue to stress the natural environment and generate a spectrum of environmental problems that must be solved.  Environmental engineers are called upon to manipulate the biological, chemical, ecological, economic, hydrological, physical, and social processes that take place in our environment in an effort to balance our material needs with the desire for a sustainable and quality environment.

At Cornell University, research and teaching activities related to environmental engineering are found in many of the traditional engineering fields.  However, undergraduate degrees with environmental engineering options are offered by the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering and by the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.  Their graduate and undergraduate degrees are structured to provide students with appropriate background in the physical, chemical and biological sciences together with the mathematical, planning, analysis and design tools necessary to address complex environmental engineering problems.  The graduate and research programs focus involves the study of water and wastewater treatment processes, the fate and transport of contaminants in natural aquatic systems, the design and management of environmental and water resource systems, environmental fluid mechanics, hydraulics and hydrology. Primary topics of research and training include the following:

• treatment of municipal and industrial wastewaters

• water quality management

• management, treatment, and disposal of hazardous wastes

• design and evaluation of water treatment and distribution systems

• identification, prediction, and evaluation of the economic ecological and social impacts of alternative resource management policies

• ecological engineering

• watershed hydrology

• ground water bioremediation

• analysis and modeling of biogeochemical processes in the environment

This collaborative program is supported by excellent teaching and research facilities including: water chemistry, physical/chemical/biological processes, biochemistry and microbiology laboratories, Cornell’s Super Computer Technology, the New York State Center for Advanced Technology in Biotechnology, and the Center for the Environment which oversees and supports many interdisciplinary environmental research programs.  The wide variety of teaching and research activities, the world-class research facilities and the interdisciplinary centers at Cornell University provide students with excellent opportunities for study and research in environmental engineering.