Spotlight Profiles
Kelly Fletcher: At the Interface of Engineering and Biology
After graduating from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, Kelly Fletcher went to work at URS Corporation as an environmental consultant. There, Fletcher enjoyed the challenging atmosphere in the firm as she helped industry clients remediate contaminated sites, but opportunities to pursue new technologies were sparse. Planning her next career move, Fletcher searched for an academic program that would foster her passion for environmental research.
Her search ended at Georgia Tech, where, at a visitation day designed for prospective graduate students, she was invited to join Signals in the Sea, an NSF-funded Interdisciplinary Graduate Education and Research Training Program (IGERT). The program brings together a well-rounded group of researchers, integrating chemical, biological and engineering students.
Fletcher accepted the opportunity, hoping it could help define a research path, but also keep the flexibility and diversity of a multi-disciplinary atmosphere. "Since I had decided on pursuing interdisciplinary research, IGERT was a great fit because I was given the opportunity to develop relationships and work with biologists, chemists and engineers,” she said.
“Working within two fields, biology and engineering, offers unique opportunities and challenges. My goal is to bridge the communication gap between the fields, resulting in the development of faster and cheaper remediation techniques.”
Now a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Fletcher spends most of her days in the Ford Environmental Science and Technology Building conducting cutting-edge environmental research. With academic advisor Dr. Frank Loeffler, Fletcher is helping to make severely contaminated sites in the United States safe again using a new thermal treatment method coupled with bioremediation.
"Sites are heated up, then the 'bugs' are sent in," said Fletcher of the double-duty treatment method using heat and contaminant-eating microbes (termed "bugs" by environmental researchers). "The goal is to reduce contaminants to safe levels set by the Environmental Protection Agency as quickly as possible."
Fletcher continued, "I enjoy the excitement my research team has for the work. What we're doing is new and exciting and it's at the interface of engineering and biology."
With a few more years ahead of her, Fletcher has set her sights on an academic career, starting with a PostDoc.
“As a post-doc or, one day, faculty member, I will take so much from having worked at Georgia Tech and with Frank [Loeffler], not only technical skills, but also a real excitement for research.”
To read more about the Environmental Engineering Graduate Program at Georgia Tech, visit http://www.ce.gatech.edu/groups/efmwr/.