Environmental Science And Engineering
Integrating science & engineering to achieve sustainable development and stewardship of the environment
The Environmental Science and Engineering Division (ESE) is a degree-granting academic program at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM), a top-ranked public university located in Golden, Colorado at the base of the Rocky Mountains. CSM is a world-class institution with a focus on engineering and applied science related to earth, energy, materials and environment. The current enrollment of 4,200 students includes those seeking B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees.
The ESE Program is nationally ranked for its character and quality. The programs of study are interdisciplinary in scope and designed to prepare students to investigate and analyze environmental systems as well as evaluate and design natural and engineered solutions to protect, preserve, and benefit from the earth's resources.
ESE faculty and staff are diverse in their backgrounds and expertise, spanning civil and environmental engineering, environmental chemistry, soil science, hydrology, ecology, microbiology, toxicology, and environmental law. Students in ESE also have varied backgrounds in the physical and life sciences and most engineering disciplines; they come to ESE from across the U.S. and abroad. ESE prides itself in the diversity within the Program and the strong interactions encompassing both intellectual and social aspects of the university educational experience.
NEWS
A note from the Mines Provost Dr Steve Castillo - I am very pleased to announce that effective May 17th, 2010, Prof. John McCray will commence his duties as the new Division Director of the Environmental Science and Engineering Division. John has an exemplary record of success in both the classroom and the research laboratory. He has also provided strong leadership of the Hydrologic Science and Engineering interdisciplinary degree program at Mines. Please join me in welcoming John to the leadership team at Mines. I also want to thank Prof. Bob Siegrist for the outstanding job he has done in leading the Environment Science and Engineering Division since 2001. His efforts have resulted in a vibrant division with strong teaching and research from outstanding faculty.
WRGP Program Expanded to include applicants from California in the Fall of 2010 -The Western Regional Graduate Program (WRGP) makes high-quality, distinctive graduate programs available to students of the West at the resident tuition rate. Through WRGP, residents of Alaska, Arizona, California (effective for fall 2010 enrollment) Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming are eligible to enroll in available programs outside of their home state at resident tuition rates. Students need not demonstrate financial need. The Environmental Science and Engineering graduate program at CSM is a WRGP approved program. More information
ESE Post Doc Dr. Hallgerd Eydal was awarded a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship from the European Union. Hallgerd is a post-doctoral research scientist in ESE working with Dr. John Spear. She was granted approximately $320K for this prestigious award. The fellowship involves two years of research in my lab here at CSM to begin in mid-August. The third year of the work will be done at the University of Bergen, Norway. The work is to examine the microbial ecology and state of viruses in Yellowstone Hotsprings.
Nathan Hancock is the recipient of the prestigious AWWA 2010 Abel Wolman Doctoral Fellowship. The Abel Wolman Fellowship is designed to support promising doctoral students in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico pursuing advanced training and research in the field of water supply and treatment. To accomplish this objective, the doctoral fellowship provides up to two years of support and is awarded annually to the most outstanding student. The Abel Wolman Fellowship will be formally presented to Nathan at the Water Industry Luncheon, during the AWWA Annual Conference in Chicago on June 22nd, 2010.
Dr. Robert Siegrist has been invited to the Danish Technical University in May 2010 where he will serve as external examiner for a doctoral defense and also deliver the 10th Lecture in the L.A. Colding Lecture Series in Environmental Science and Technology. He will also travel to Norway where he will deliver a series of lectures at the University of Life Sciences as part of a summer course focused on Sustainable Sanitation - Decentralized, Natural and Ecological Wastewater Treatment.
The National Ground Water Research and Educational Foundation awarded a scholarship to PhD student Kristin Mikkelson at the 2010 NGWA Ground Water Summit and 2010 Ground Water Protection Council Spring Meeting in Denver, Colorado. Her poster was titled, "Preliminary Investigations Into the Impact on Metal and Cationic Surface and Groundwater Fluxes Due to the Mountain Pine Beetle Epidemic: Summit County, Colorado"
Dr. Linda Figueroa was selected to serve on an international team of 5 experts by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to develop a framework for the Uranium Production Network for Education and Training (UPNET). The first meeting will be at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria in May 2010. The vision for UPNET is: Sharing of knowledge by education, and transfer of experience by training, leading to safe, economic and timely application of good practices over the life cycle of uranium projects worldwide, from exploration, through production, to closure.
The International Geobiology Course will again be at Mines in 2010. The International Geobiology Course is an intense, summer training program at the interface of two distinct disciplines--Geology and Biology. The course trains 20 graduate students from around the world on all aspects of this important discipline interface. Typically, the course takes a one-week field trip to a geobiologically important field site such as Yellowstone National Park, Death Valley, the Bahamas and the North American Rockies. From 2008 to 2013 the course spends approximately one week on the Colorado School of Mines campus to learn all aspects of molecular methodology as applied to Geobiology. From 2010-2013 the course will be co-directed by Dr. John Spear from the Colorado School of Mines and Frank Corsetti from the University of Southern California. The course is generously supported by the Agouron Institute, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, NASA and the NSF.
Calendar Year 2009 was an exemplary year of activity and accomplishment for ESE as reflected by the following highlights:
Degrees awarded = 1 Ph.D., 33 M.S., 16 B.S.
Research expenditures = $4.1M
Proposals submitted = 58
Journal papers in print = 33
Abstracts associated with presentations = 116
Full conference papers published = 42
Invited talks across the U.S. and abroad = 50
Editorships held = 8