We offer a strong core curriculum, providing you with rigorous training in the causes, control, and prevention of environmental contamination and the flexibility to secure your future in an environmental profession. The curriculum provides a broad foundation in mathematics and the fundamentals of physical, chemical, and biological processes. From there, the curriculum builds your understanding of the fate of environmental contaminants, your ability to analyze and design solutions to real-world environmental problems, and your ability to apply methods of modeling and simulation to assess risk and estimate cost. The department also offers minors in Environmental Engineering and in Civil Engineering.
As an environmental engineering student you will choose one of the following concentrations, depending on your interests and ambitions:
- Contaminant Transport and Control Processes —providing an in-depth understanding of both engineered and natural processes controlling contaminant behavior and remediation techniques.
- Environmental Facilities Design and Construction —preparing you to develop and engineer the systems for air, water, and wastewater purification.
- Environmental Engineering Biotechnology —familiarizing you with biological and microbial aspects of ecology and pollution control.
- Water Resources and Water Quality —enabling you to develop engineered solutions to mitigate the effects of droughts and floods, and to cleanup contaminated rivers, streams, and groundwater.
Active research ensures that the content of the curriculum is constantly renewed and maintained at a technically challenging level and integrates discovery learning into the program. Opportunities abound for environmental engineering undergraduates to work with faculty and graduate students in our world-class research program. Roughly two-thirds of our students work as research assistants, either for pay or independent study credit. We want our graduates to have the skills necessary to pursue advanced degrees. More detailed information on our research program is available on our website.
The study of engineering fosters the development of quantitative, analytical, and problem-solving skills which are very useful in many different career areas. The future of environmental engineering appears particularly promising. The public’s investment in its environmental concerns has led to long-term pollution control initiatives both domestically and worldwide. Projections suggest significant growth in such areas as environmental engineering consulting, air pollution control, and hazardous waste management.
