Environmental Engineering Faculty
The following is the list of faculty associated with Environmental Engineering.
The list is organized displaying full time tenure and tenure track faculty, research and other general faculty and faculty associates that contribute to the programs mission.
Full time Tenure and Tenure track Faculty
Aral,Mustafa M - Professor
Research Interests: Large scale environmental simulations in surface water and groundwater; environmental exposure analysis; exposure-dose reconstruction; health risk assessment.
Bergin,Michael H - Associate Professor
Research Interests: Air pollution; formation, transport, and deposition of aerosols; influence of aerosols on climate; air/snow exchange of aerosol chemical species; paleoclimate studies based on ice core chemistry; fog/cloud formation and chemistry; microcontamination in industrial processes.
Chen,Yongsheng - Associate Professor
Research Interests: Dr. Yongsheng Chen joined School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology in 2009. His primary interest is in the areas of: 1) the potential environmental applications of nanotechnology, including synthesizing novel nanomaterials for removal of contaminants from different media and monitoring environmental pollutants; 2) environmental implications of nanotechnology addressing potentially adverse impacts of nanomaterials, especially the fate, transport, transformation, bioaccumulation, and toxicity of nanomaterials in the environment. In addition, Dr. Chen is also interested in urban sustainability, including water/energy use efficiency and sustainable biofuels, focusing on algae related biofuel downstream issues. Dr. Chen has served as principal and co-principal investigator on grants totaling about 6 million dollars. He has also published more than 40 peer-reviewed journal papers.
Crittenden,John - Director, Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems. Hightower Chair and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar
Research Interests: Pollution Prevention, Physical Chemical Treatment Processes (Ion Exchange, Oxidation Processes, Catalytic Oxidation, Photocatalytic Oxidation, Electrocatalysis, Adsorption, Electro-Adsorption, Air Stripping), Transport of Organics in Saturated and Unsaturated Groundwater, Modeling of Fixed-Bed Reactors and Adsorbers (Photocatalysis, Low Temperature Catalysis in Aqueous and Gas Phases, Transport of Organics in Saturated and Unsaturated Groundwater), Sol-Gel Chemistry for Preparation of Zeolites and Catalysts, Surface Chemistry and Thermodynamics (Prediction of Adsorption Capacities and Surface Catalyzed Rate Constants), Mass Transfer, Numerical Methods, Modeling of Wastewater and Water Treatment Processes
Fritz,Hermann Marc - Associate Professor
Research Interests: Tsunamis, bores, non-linear and breaking waves, Subaerial and submarine landslides and oceanic volcano island collapses, Hurricane storm surges and coastal flooding Hydropower, wave and tidal energy Hydraulic, coastal, marine and offshore structures, River engineering, sediment transport and morphologic processes, Advanced whole field multi-dimensional laser measurement techniques, Numerical simulation of multiphase flows, Natural hazard mitigation and risk analysis, Natural and man-made hazards.
Haas,Kevin A - Associate Professor
Research Interests: Dr. Haas' research interests include coastal engineering, numerical modeling of nearshore circulation, sediment transport in coastal regions, hydrodynamics of rip current systems, utilizing video for field and laboratory observations of waves and currents, modeling and field observations of morphodynamic evolution, sediment and contaminant transport in tidal marshes and extracting energy from waves and currents.
Huang,Ching-Hua - Associate Professor
Research Interests: Transformation and fate of emerging contaminants in natural and engineered aquatic systems; Surface reactions and catalysis involving natural minerals and novel nanomaterials; Chemistry of emerging disinfection by-products in water treatment systems; Physicochemical water treatment processes; Fundamental reaction activity, kinetics and mechanisms in environmental systems; Development and applications of novel analytical techniques for emerging environmental contaminants.
Hughes,Joseph Blake - Karen & John Huff School Chair and Professor
Research Interests: Environmental biotechnology and in particular, determining how novel metabolic capabilities of living organisms can be harnessed to improve environmental quality; nanotechnology in environmental systems.
Kim,Jaehong - Associate Professor
Research Interests: Physicochemical processes for water and wastewater treatment; ozone disinfection by-products; membrane processes (microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis); desalination; emulsion liquid membrane application.
Konstantinidis,Kostas T - Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Environmental microbiology and genomics. Computational approaches for studying the ecology and evolution of microorganisms. Development of genomic and proteomic techniques to investigate and quantify in-situ important microbial-mediated processes. Population and single-cell genomics. Assessing the extent and value of biodiversity within natural assemblages of Bacteria and Archaea. Biotechnological applications of microbial functional diversity. Environmental relevance of microbial diseases.
Loeffler,Frank E - Carlton Wilder Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering
Research Interests: Microbial detoxification, bioremediation applications, novel bacteria, and environmental genomics.
Mulholland,James A - Professor & EnvE Program Coordinator
Research Interests: Combustion byproduct formation and control; incineration; thermochemistry of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and chlorinated aromatic species; molecular modeling; spatio-temporal analysis of ambient air pollutants.
Pavlostathis,Spyros G - Professor
Research Interests: Environmental biotechnology and bioprocessing for the bioremediation of contaminated natural systems and the treatment of industrial and municipal wastewater; bioavailability, fate and biotransformation of recalcitrant organic compounds such as dyes, pesticides, antioxidants, disinfectants, and antibiotics; biotransformation of emerging environmental contaminants; bioenergy and biofuels from biomass and waste streams; development of halophilic and thermophilic microbial processes; kinetics and modeling of biotransformation/treatment processes.
Russell,Armistead G - Georgia Power Distinguished Professor
Research Interests: Air Pollution Modeling, Aerosol Dynamics, Atmospheric Chemistry, Combustion Emissions Control, Control Strategy Design, Computer Modeling, Numerical Methods.
Spain,Jim C - Professor
Research Interests: Environmental distribution, persistence, and biodegradation of chemical pollutants; Green chemistry synthesis of organic compounds by biocatalysis; Biodegradation pathways in bacteria for application to bioremediation; Environmental biotechnology related to marine, freshwater and subsurface ecosystems; Evolution and adaptation of microbial communities; Biochemistry, ecology, and molecular biology of environmentally relevant microbes; Discovery and characterization of bacteria that degrade synthetic organic compounds; Photobiological hydrogen production by cyanobacteria.
Webster,Peter J - Professor
Research Interests: Low frequency atmospheric and ocean dynamics
Ocean-atmosphere interactions
Wave propagation through complex flows
Work,Paul A - Associate Professor
Research Interests: Dr. Work's research interests include coastal engineering, water waves, sediment and contaminant transport, beach nourishment, ports and harbors, coastal and riverine flooding, and other applications of environmental fluid mechanics. His projects often combine field observations and numerical modeling tools, and have been supported by a variety of sponsors, including the U.S. Geological Survey, NOAA’s Sea Grant program, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Office of Naval Research.
Yiacoumi,Sotira - Professor
Research Interests: Interfacial and colloidal phenomena in environmental systems; sorption of metal ions from aqueous solutions; sorption/desorption of organic compounds from aqueous solutions by natural particles; colloidal particle interactions in aquatic systems; bubble interactions in gas/liquid reactive systems; influence of sorption rates on particle flocculation kinetics.
Research and other general Faculty
Fan,Maohong - Adjunct Associate Professor
Research Interests: His current research interests include applications of nanostructure(d) materials and combined nano-bio technologies in chemical and environmental engineering as well as energy production; identification and removal of conventional and emerging contaminants in water and wastewater, and pollutants in air; development of green chemical manufacturing processes and environmental sensors; production and separation of chemicals from biorenewable resources; and characterization and utilization of waste materials.
Odman,Mehmet T - Principal Research Engineer
Research Interests: Air pollution meteorology and atmospheric chemistry; Air quality modeling: local, urban, regional and global scales; Computational fluid dynamics in environmental applications; Numerical methods and algorithms, high performance computing; Visualization, decision support and expert systems
Ritalahti,Kirsti - Research Scientist II
Research Interests: I design molecular tools to independently track different microbial populations important in bioremediation approaches. Of particular interest are the Dehalococcoides organisms present in a dechlorinating consortium, which Georgia Tech licensed to Regenesis for bioremediation applications. The assays that I have developed are being used by Microbial Insights for routine characterization of groundwater and sediment microbial communities. I also provide departmental support and training for designing primers and probes for environmental quantitative PCR (qPCR) applications. I am currently designing a short-course in the use of quantitative PCR to train faculty and students interested in using these techniques for their research. Additional targets for qPCR are currently being investigated using microarray technology and a collaboration with the University of Toronto.
Tandukar,Madan - Visit Research Engineer II
Research Interests:
Tandukar,Madan - Visit Research Engineer II
Research Interests: Water/wastewater treatment, Environmental Microbiology and Genomics, Microbial Fuel Cell, Bioremediation applications, Biological Nutrient Removal, Partial Nitrification & Anammox, Hydrogen Fermentation
Tsouris,Costas - Affiliate
Research Interests: Chemical and environmental multiphase transport processes; effects of electric and magnetic fields on transport phenomena and phase equilibria; separations enchanced by electric and magnetic fields; sequestration.
Zhu,Guangxuan - Senior Research Scientist
Research Interests: Analytical chemistry and applied spectroscopy; analytical instrumentation and method development for environmental engineering; application of advanced techniques to analysis of trace metals and organic pollutants.