Redefining Environmental Engineering and Science in the 21st Century

University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC

Investigators

Abstract

1602500 Characklis The discipline of Environmental Engineering and Science has deep roots, with sanitary engineering programs proliferating throughout the first half of the 1900's and progressively transitioning to present-day water, wastewater, solid waste and air programs in the 1960's and 70's. Much of this progression resulted from the nation's first set of comprehensive environmental regulatory initiatives, especially the Clean Air Act (1970), Clean Water Act (1972), Safe Drinking Water Act (1974) and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability ("Superfund") Act (1980), as well as their subsequent amendments. These Acts funded both research and infrastructure investments that transformed the treatment and provision of water and wastewater, while also contributing to dramatic improvements in the quality of the nation's air and water. There has been rapid expansion in interest sustainability (among others) and a growing number of faculty have modified their research and teaching interests to encompass these topics, but thus far these efforts have largely been at the individual level. To date, there have been few environmental engineering and science community-wide initiatives to consider the implications of this changing landscape on the discipline's research agenda, curricula (undergraduate and graduate), and academic identity. Accompanying these changes has been an explosion of student interest and activity in international (mostly developing world) environmental challenges, but research support in this area remains modest. As a result, community discussion is urgently needed to proactively define the scope and direction of our discipline in this changing landscape. This discussion should address future research and teaching agendas, an increased alignment between research and current funding mechanisms, and expansion into new funding areas. Each of these topics is important for maintaining the future vitality of our discipline as we seek to build a strong foundation that will allow us to train students, impact public policy and provide innovative solutions to the world's most vexing environmental challenges. The PIs propose to organize and host two workshops that will facilitate a national conversation intended to better define the Environmental Engineering and Science discipline for the 21st century. Currently we envision workshops in the Los Angeles and Washington, DC areas, to be held in January and May 2016. These workshops will include a group of invited speakers who will give brief presentations designed to provoke discussion on issues related to frontier areas of research, funding trends, adaptation of curricula, future workforce needs, and current/future regulatory initiatives. The goal is to solicit input from the broader community and then synthesize the discussions to develop suggestions for how individuals, academic units (Departments, Schools) and our professional organization, the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP), can best implement change.