Environmental Engineering

at the

Fall 2014

Environmental Engineering at Yale began in 1998 as an interdisciplinary program within the Department of Chemical Engineering, built upon institutional strengths in environmental, biological, and engineering sciences and guided by the University’s global perspective. In 2010, the Department of Chemical Engineering was renamed as the Department of Chemical & Environmental Engineering to more accurately reflect the scope of the research and the degree offerings.

The department now has six core and four adjunct faculty conducting fundamental research in water, air, and energy with both sustainability and molecular focus to address emerging environmental engineering and science problems. The program emphasizes collaborative, interdisciplinary research, leveraging strengths in other schools and departments at Yale, presenting a great example of environmental science and engineering at the nexus.

The department offers Ph.D. and B.S. degrees in Environmental Engineering. The Environmental Engineering Program at Yale continues to attract outstanding undergraduate and graduate students as well as postdoctoral fellows, with many of the graduates having leading positions in academia, industry, and government.

Beacon for Outstanding Environmental Engineering Education and Research

Environmental Engineering at

A Leading Mid-Size Program: #1 in National Research Council’s size-independent S-Ranking.

Frontiers in Research: Transformative research at the nexus of environment, energy, and sustainability.

Publication Powerhouse: Average 26 peer-reviewed journal articles per faculty in the past three years and average 32.7 h-index by six core faculty.

Award Winning Faculty: Two National Academy of Engineering members (Elimelech & Graedel), one Clarke Prize winner (Elimelech), three Walter Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize Winners (Elimelech, Zimmerman, & Kim).

Outstanding Graduate Students: Numerous National Science Foundation and Environmental Protection Agency graduate fellowship recipients.

Strong Collaborations:Active research partnerships with Yale’s School of Forestry & Environmental Science.

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Menachem ElimelechRoberto Goizueta ProfessorSustainable technologies at the water-energy nexus

EducationPh.D. Johns Hopkins University, 1989

Selected Recent Publications“Reverse Osmosis Biofilm Dispersal by Osmotic Back-Flushing: Cleaning via Substratum Perforation.” Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 2014.

“Thin-Film Composite Polyamide Membranes Functionalized with Biocidal Graphene Oxide Nanosheets.” Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 2013.

“Influence of Natural Organic Matter Fouling and Osmotic Backwash on Pressure Retarded Osmosis Energy Production from Natural Salinity Gradients.” Environmental

Science & Technology, 2013.

“A Forward Osmosis-Membrane Distillation Hybrid Process for Direct Sewer Mining: System Performance and Limitations.” Environmental Science & Technology, 2013.

“Membrane-Based Processes for Sustainable Power Generation using Water and Wastewater.” Nature, 2012.

Major Awards2014 Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher 2012 Yale University Postdoctoral Mentoring Prize 2011 The Simon W. Freese Environmental Engineering Award, American Society of Civil Engineers2008 The American Institute of Chemical Engineers Lawrence K. Cecil Award in Environmental Chemical Engineering2006 Election to the National Academy of Engineering2005 The Athalie Richardson Irvine Clarke Prize

The Elimelech group has been carrying out research on membrane-based processes, focusing on technologies at the water-energy nexus. Some of the group work highlighted in ES&T are osmosis-driven membrane processes for sustainable production of water (middle) and power (left), and decentralized membrane systems for developing countries (right).

seas.yale.edu/elimelech

Research InterestsMembrane-based processes for energy-efficient desalination and wastewater reuse; sustainable production of water and energy generation with engineered osmosis; environmental applications of nanomaterials; water and sanitation in developing countries.

Drew GentnerAssistant Professor

Addressing critical issues at the nexus of air quality, energy, public health, and climate change

EducationPh.D. University of California, Berkeley, 2012

Selected Recent Publications “Emissions of Organic Carbon and Methane from Petroleum and Dairy Operations in California’s San Joaquin Valley.” Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2014.

“Chemical Composition of Gas-Phase Organic Carbon Emissions from Motor Vehicles and Implications for Ozone Production.” Environmental Science and Technology, 2013.

“Nighttime Growth of Particulate Organic Nitrates: A Significant Source of Atmospheric Secondary Organic Aerosols.” Science, 2012.

“Embracing Complexity: Deciphering Origins and Transformations of Atmospheric Organics Through Speciated Measurements.” Environmental Science and Technology, 2012.

“Elucidating Secondary Organic Aerosol from Diesel and Gasoline Vehicles Through Detailed Characterization of Organic Carbon Emissions.” Proceedings of the National Academy, 2012.

Major Awards2011 Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award 2011 Civil & Environmental Engineering (Berkeley) Departmental Service Award 2011 Fellow - Summer Institute for Preparing Future Faculty 2008 Sustainable Energy Fellow

Clockwise left to right: Drew sets up instrumentation to measure size- & chemically-re-solved organic aerosol emitted from motor vehicles in a roadway tunnel as traffic rushes by just below his feet; the Gentner group develops new analytical instrumentation that can decipher the complex organic mixture of gases and particles in the atmosphere shown in the 2-D chromatogram; research in the group also seeks to characterize detrimental air quality and its determining factors in megacities and the developing world.

seas.yale.edu/gentner

Research InterestsEmissions and physical/chemical processes of primary and secondary air pollution; impacts of traditional and alternative energy production/use on air quality, climate change, and public health; air quality and energy in developing countries and megacities; organic aerosols and ozone in the atmosphere; novel analytical instrumentation to measure understudied components of the atmosphere.

Jaehong KimBarton L. Weller Associate ProfessorPioneering new material-based environmental technologies

EducationPh.D. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2002

Selected Recent Publications“A Simple Method Towards Solid Supported C60 Visible Light-Activated

Photocatalysts.” Environmental Science & Technology, 2014.

“Synthesis and Characterization of Visible-to-UVC Upconversion Antimicrobial Ceramics.” Environmental Science & Technology, 2014.

“Toward In-Situ Healing of Compromised Polymeric Membranes.” Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 2014.

“Visualizing and Quantifying Dose Distribution in a UV Reactor Using Three-Dimensional Laser-Induced Fluorescence.” Environmental Science &

Technology, 2012.

“Encapsulated TTA-Based Upconversion in the Aqueous Phase for Sub-Bandgap Semiconductor Photocatalysis.” Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2012.

Major Awards2013 Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, American Society of Civil Engineers2012 Georgia Power Distinguished Professorship, Georgia Tech2012 Environmental Science & Technology Top Environmental Technology Paper Award2009 Paul L. Busch Award, Water Environment Research Foundation2007 CETL/BP Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award, Georgia Tech

Far Left: Professor Kim working with his student to measure photoluminescence property of newly synthesized upconversion phosphors that inactivate microorganisms when exposed to visible light. Left: Recent cover from the June 2014 issue of Environ-mental Science & Technology Letters. Top: Green-to-blue upconversion microcapsules that enable the use of low en-ergy solar spectrum for pho-tocatalysis in environmental remediation.

seas.yale.edu/kim

Research InterestsEnvironmental implication and application of carbonaceous nano materials; development of upconversion phosphor technology for environmental application; ozone and UV disinfection process optimization and design; high-pressure membrane process evaluation and simulation.

Jordan PecciaAssociate Professor

Integrating molecular biology with environmental engineering

EducationPh.D. University of Colorado-Boulder, 2000

Selected Recent Publications“Identification of Viral Pathogen Diversity in Sewage Sludge by Metagenome Analysis.” Environmental Science and Technology, 2013.

“Quantitative Transcriptomic Analysis of the Microalga Neochloris oleoabundans Reveals How Nitrogen Limitation Redirects Cellular Metabolism Towards the Accumulation of Storage Lipids.” Biotechnology for Biofuels, 2012.

“Size Distributed Concentration and Diversity of Outdoor Fungi.” The ISME Journal, 2012.

“Size Distributed Emission Rates of Airborne Bacteria and Fungi in Indoor Air Due to Occupancy.” Indoor Air, 2012.

“Toward a Consensus View on the Infectious Risks Associated with Land Application of Sewage Sludge.” Environmental Science and Technology, 2011.

Major Awards2011 Graduate Mentor Award, Yale University 2005 Teaching Excellence Award, ASU Fulton School of Engineering 2004 NSF CAREER Award2001 AEESP/CH2M Hill Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award

seas.yale.edu/peccia

Research InterestsHuman exposure to bacterial and viral pathogens emitted during the land application of sewage sludge; sources of and human exposure to bacteria and fungi in the built environment; and genome-wide gene expression investigations for improving biofuel feedstock production rates in photosynthetic microorganisms.

Left: Metabolic pathways maps of the oil-rich microalga Neochloris oleoabundans demon-strate differential gene expression under high lipid (yellow) and low lipid (blue) growth re-gimes. Right: Time-lapse LIDAR backscatter image shows the increase of aerosols emitted from sewage sludge land application sites due to high wind events.

Desiree PlataAssistant ProfessorSustainable innovation in nanomanufacturing

EducationPh.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology/

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2009

Selected Recent Publications“Natural gas pipeline leaks across Washington, DC.” Environmental Science & Technology, 2014.

“Incinerator Filters Nanoparticles.” Nature Nanotechnology, 2012.

“Thermogravimetry- mass spectrometry for carbon nanotube detection in complex mixtures.” Environmental Science & Technology, 2012.

“Precursor gas chemistry determines the crystalinity of carbon nanotubes synthesized at low temperature .” Carbon, 2011.

“Multiple alkynes react with ethylene to enhance carbon nanotube synthesis, suggesting a polymerization-like formation mechanism.” ACS Nano, 2010.

Major Awards2013 Fellow, US-Korea Kavli Frontiers of Science, National Academy of Sciences2012 Fellow, Frontiers of Engineering, National Academy of Engineers2011 Fellow, Kavli Frontiers of Science, National Academy of Sciences 2008 C. Ellen Gonter Best Paper Award, Environmental Division, American Chemical Society2004 Graduate Research Fellow, National Science Foundation

Left: Tall (>4mm) vertically aligned carbon nanotube forest synthesized via alkyne-assisted catalytic chemical vapor deposition in a cold wall reactor with 1000-fold reduction in toxic emissions and 50% reduced energy and starting material requirements. The fundamental chemistry elucidated in the project suggests carbon nanotubes are made via polymerization-like reactions, which could be exploited for enhanced control over bond-build-ing steps at the nanotube catalyst. Right: A merry-go-round photoreactor used to study novel routes of nanomaterial activation (e.g., for synthesis) using alternative energy sources, such as radiation. The device is also employed in the study of natural modifications of carbon nanomaterials, hydrocarbons (e.g., oil-derived aromatic compounds), and photoreduction in metal nanoparticles following their release to the environment.

seas.yale.edu/plata

Research InterestsCo-optimization of advanced materials and industrial processes for performance, cost, and environmental metrics during the design phase of innovation; detection methods of carbonaceous nanomaterials (natural, engineered, and incidental); molecular control over graphitic nanostructures to improve atom economy, reduce energy requirements, and enable nanomanufacturing; identification and fate of organic hydrocarbons in oil and gas industry; aerogel materials for oil reclamation; photochemical transformations of hydrocarbons in natural systems.

Julie ZimmermanAssociate Professor

Designing a sustainable tomorrow through Green Chemistry and Engineering

EducationPh.D. The University of Michigan, 2003

Selected Recent Publications“Towards Tailored Functional Design of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWNTs): Electrochemical and Antimicrobial Activity Enhancement via Oxidation and Selective Reduction.” Environmental Science and Technology, 2014.

“An Energy-Water Nexus Analysis of Enhanced Water Supply Scenarios: A Regional Comparison of Tampa Bay, Florida and San Diego, California.” Environmental Science and Technology, 2014.

“Computational Approaches for Molecular Design for Reduced Toxicity - A Case Study: Acute Toxicity to the Pimephales Promelas.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2014.

“Effect of System Conditions for Biodiesel Production via Transersterification using Carbon Dioxide-Methanol Mixtures in the Presence of a Heterogeneous Catalyst.” ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, 2014.

“Adsorption of selenite and selenite by nanocrystalline aluminum oxide, neat and impregnated in chitosan beads.” Water Research, 2014.

Major Awards2013 Finalist, Connecticut Women of Innovation, Research Category 2013 Karman Fellow, RWTH-Aachen University, Aachen, Germany 2012 Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, American Society of Civil Engineering 2006 EPA Gold Medal for Commendable Service2005 National Academy of Engineering, Frontiers in Engineering Education

Left: Novel, reusable, green sorbents composed on nano metal oxides and biopolymers for the selective and efficient removal of inorganic contaminants from aqueous systems. Middle: Algal biomass grown for extraction, fractionation, and transesterification in a one-pot high pressure carbon dioxide system that yields fuels and value-added chemicals. Right: Cover of Environmental Science & Technology when the Principles of Green Engineering were originally published.

seas.yale.edu/zimmerman

Research InterestsEffectively pursuing fundamental research within a broader sustainability context as reflected in three principle areas: ennobling the integrated biorefinery; developing novel, green, selective sorbents for inorganic contaminants; informing the design of safer chemicals and nanomaterials.

Paul T. AnastasPh.D., Brandeis University, 1989

Director, Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering; Professor in the Practice of Green Chemistry, Chemical & Environmental Engineering; Teresa & H. John Heinz III Professor in the Practice of Chemistry for the Environment, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Research Interests:The development of heuristic molecular design rules to minimize human and ecological toxicity through the use of empirical and semi-empirical methods; development of catalysts for the splitting of water for energy storage applications and the activation of C-H bonds; design of new catalyst systems for the transformation of biomass – including lignin – to value added products to advance biorefinery applications.

Selected Awards:Wöhler Prize, Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh), 2012; Edward O. Wilson Biodiversity Technology Pioneer Prize, ACM, 2012; Rachael Carson Award, Natural Products Association, 2011; Named to the “Nifty 50” Top Scientists by the U.S. Science and Engineering Festival, 2010; Council of Scientific Society Presidents, 2008 Leadership in Science Award, 2008; John Jeyes Lectureship, UK Royal Society of Chemistry, 2007; Honorary Doctorate of Science in Chemistry, Queens University, Belfast, Ireland, 2007; The Heinz Award, Environment, 2006.

Michelle BellPh.D., Johns Hopkins University, 2002

Professor of Chemical & Environmental Engineering Professor of Environmental Health at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Research Interests:Understanding the effects of atmospheric systems, including air pollution and weather, on human health using epidemiology, biostatistics, and environmental engineering.

Selected Awards:Prince Albert II de Monaco/Institut Pasteur Award, Rosenblith New Investigator Award, and the NIH Outstanding New Environmental Scientist (ONES) Award.

Thomas Graedel Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1969

Clifton R. Musser Professor of Industrial Ecology; Professor of Chemical & Environmental Engineering; Professor of Geology and Geophysics; Director of the Center for Industrial Ecology

Research Interests:Industrial ecology; materials use, loss, and recycling; criticality of metals; atmospheric composition and global change; sustainability science and engineering.

Selected Awards:U.S. National Academy of Engineering, 2002; Society Prize, International Society for Industrial Ecology, 2007, for outstanding contributions to industrial ecology; Elected as Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1998; Elected as Fellow, American Geophysical Union, 1995.

Joseph PignatelloPh.D., University of California at Berkeley, 1977

Adjunct Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering; Chief of the Department of Environmental Sciences, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven

Research Interests:Organic pollutants in soils and sediments in underground and aquatic environments; transport; adsorption mechanisms and kinetics; bioavailability; methods for remediation of contaminated soils and water including bioremediation, physical methods of removal, and advanced oxidation processes.

Affiliated Faculty

Some of our recent graduates and postdocs are today at:

FACULTY IN ACADEMIA:Carnegie Mellon University

Clemson University

Columbia University

Cornell University

Dartmouth College

ETH Zurich

Harvard University

Johns Hopkins University

McGill University

Nanyang Technological University

National University of Singapore

Northeastern University

Peking University

Purdue University

Rice University

Seoul National University

State University of New York, Buffalo

University of California, Los Angeles

University of California, Riverside

University of Colorado at Boulder

University of Delaware

University of Illinois at U-C

University of Maryland

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

University of Michigan

University of Minnesota

University of Notre Dame

University of Pittsburgh

University of Washington, Seattle

PUBLIC & PRIVATE SECTORS:Boston Consulting Group

US Environmental Protection Agency

Weizmann Institure of Science

Xylem Inc.

Oasys Water

Nagare Membranes

Proctor & Gamble

P2 Science, Inc.

Brown & Caldwell

Veolia Water Solutions & Technology

Singapore National Environment Agency

Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research

Yale Environmental EngineeringP.O. Box 208286New Haven, CT 06520-8286seas.yale.edu/environmental