The Environmental Processes (EP) research focus area of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University (http://www.cee.cornell.edu/) invites applications for thesis-based M.S. and Ph.D. studies beginning in the 2023/2024 academic year. The EP area focuses on advancing fundamental knowledge and developing sustainable technologies that can contribute to the paradigm shifts needed to face the most urgent environmental challenges facing human societies such as energy/resources crises and climate change. We train our students to develop the skills and ability to apply multi-disciplinary tools and more sustainable approaches for reducing detrimental environmental and health impacts resulting from chemical and biological contaminants. There are six active research groups:
April Z. Gu (http://gu.cee.cornell.edu/): Water quality and environmental health. The Gu group applies biotechnology to (i) develop more sustainable wastewater treatment and remediation processes; (ii) investigate the impact of climate change on global phosphorus cycling; and (iii) develop next-generation toxicogenomics-based toxicity assessment technology platforms to enable risk-based water quality monitoring and technology efficacy assessment
Greeshma Gadikota (https://gadikota.cee.cornell.edu/): Energy and Environment; Enabling emergent technologies for a sustainable earth requires us to advance the cross-scale science of fluid-solid interactions in complex and extreme environments. With this perspective, our research is directed towards applications that involve (i) engineering the natural environment for sustainable energy and resource recovery and (ii) designing novel chemical pathways for advancing low carbon and negative emissions technologies.
Andrea Giometto (https://giometto.cee.cornell.edu/): We combine methods from experimental microbial ecology, experimental evolution and genetic engineering with theoretical modeling inspired by statistical physics, biophysics and soft matter physics to investigate the eco-evolutionary dynamics of microbial communities. Research interests include evolutionary dynamics of biological invasions; biological interactions in spatially structured populations; microbial community assembly; biophysics of dense microbial populations; stochastic population dynamics.
Damian E. Helbling (http://helbling.research.engineering.cornell.edu/): Fate and transport of trace organic chemicals in aquatic environments; biological and chemical transformations of organic chemicals in natural and engineered systems; high-resolution mass spectrometry for environmental forensics and metabolomics; environmental and ecological determinants of chemical persistence.
Matthew Reid – (http://reid.cee.cornell.edu/): Coupled biological, chemical, and physical controls on fate of inorganic and nutrient contaminants in soil and water environments; nature-based technologies for water quality protection; sensing and real-time control of nonpoint source pollutants.
Ruth Richardson (https://richardson.cee.cornell.edu/): Sustainable wastewater treatment including energy-positive systems; fecal pathogen detection and quantification in water resources; monitoring and ecology of harmful algal blooms; microbially derived biofuels; bioremediation; quantitative use of microbial biomarkers to infer rates of specific processes in environmental settings; greenhouse gas cycling by microbes in natural and wastewater environments
Applicants should possess a B.S. or M.S. in Environmental Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Microbiology, Physics or a related field. Interested students must first apply and be admitted to the graduate program of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (Environmental Processes focus area) at Cornell University:
PhD Program: https://gradschool.cornell.edu/academics/fields-of-study/subject/civil-…
MS Program: https://gradschool.cornell.edu/academics/fields-of-study/subject/civil-…
Applicants should mention specific faculty with whom they would like to work in their application materials and discuss how their research interests align with current research programs. The application deadline is February 1st, 2023.
The faculty of Environmental Engineering at Cornell University are internationally recognized leaders in environmental research. Recent graduates of our program are now working in academia, government, with NGOs, and in internationally recognized consulting firms. Ithaca, New York enjoys a high quality of life and is frequently listed as one of the best college towns in America.