Program Objectives
The standard of living we currently experience, and the quality of life we enjoy, owe much to our skillful utilization of energy resources, and related attention to environmental protection.
The graduate program in Energy and Geo-Environmental Engineering represents the union of the two complementary programs from which it has developed: the undergraduate and graduate programs in Fuel Science, emphasizing the conversion and utilization of energy, and the undergraduate program in Environmental Systems Engineering, with a focus on the critical environmental problems of the basic industries, especially those involved in the extraction, conversion and utilization of mineral resources and fuels.
The program is complementary to the more general environmental science programs that emphasize the identification and evaluation of environmental problems, and to the classical environmental engineering programs offered by civil engineers, whose traditional emphasis is on public-sector concerns of water supply, municipal waste water (sewage) treatment, and solid waste (trash) management and disposal. The permeating focus on fuels and on energy conversion and utilization is unique.
The graduate program in Energy and Geo-Environmental Engineering is focused to address broad pedagogic needs: educating engineers and scientists with a clear appreciation of industrial needs, with solid grounding in the physical and chemical sciences, and with an appreciation of key social and physical uncertainties operating in the natural world.
The program provides a flexible environment for the study of energy and geo-environmental engineering processes, with core courses to provide structured instruction in core competencies, in physical and chemical behavior, in quantification, and in the integration of these skills into the design process.