Our mission is to provide the environmental engineering profession with highly qualified and motivated individuals, to generate and disseminate research results that are of importance to the profession, and to create a comfortable yet intellectually challenging atmosphere for both undergraduate and graduate students.
 

General Information

The Environmental Engineering Program of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Virginia Tech is composed of 11 faculty members, 75 graduate students, and approximately 100 undergraduate students. The Environmental Engineering Division is a nationally recognized program consisting of faculty who excel as teachers and researchers. Several faculty members have received both research and teaching awards for their work.

 

Announcement

Ph.D. Research Opportunity at Virginia Tech 
DRINKING WATER OXIDANTS AND POLYMERS

Through a unique National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program at Virginia Tech, I am looking to fund 2 Ph.D. students who desire to work on interdisciplinary research in the area of oxidation and polymers in drinking water.  There is flexibility in the exact project, but it will at least involve drinking water oxidants (chlorine, chloramines, hydroxyl radicals, ozone, and/or chlorine dioxide) and their effects on polymers such as plastic pipes or cell walls. 

The funding is available starting Fall 2004 or Spring/Fall 2005 to US citizens, national residents, or permanent residents  For qualified students, the traineeship consists of an initial one year of support at a rate up to $18,600 per year + tuition, followed by 21 months of support at a rate of $30,000 per year + tuition.  Students with an MS degree or prior research experience are highly desired as well as students with strong chemistry backgrounds (but not necessarily a chemistry degree).  Students with degrees in chemistry, environmental engineering, chemical engineering, material sciences, biology, environmental sciences, biochemistry, or food sciences are encouraged to apply.

Interested students should contact Dr. Andrea M. Dietrich at andread@vt.edu, or 540-231-5773.  Admittance to the IGERT program is competitive.  Students must both be accepted to the graduate program in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and selected by the VT IGERT Review panel.  Thus, students must complete both the standard VT application to graduate school and a separate IGERT application. 

Students who are selected to participate in the IGERT program will commit to involvement with not only their individual research projects, but also interdisciplinary coursework, special seminars, and out-reach activities of the program.  The Virginia Tech IGERT team will involve 15 faculty and 36 students from the Virginia Tech Colleges of Engineering, Science, Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Veterinary Medicine. The overall program was developed to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists, engineers, and educators with interdisciplinary backgrounds, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and technical, professional, and personal skills to become leaders and creative agents for change. More details about the overall project are provided in the project summary below.


This page was last updated on 04/02/04.