Graduate Program in Environmental Engineering

Biological Processes

Michigan Technological University's Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering's biological processes research is very interdisciplinary and allows students to apply fundamental biological and engineering principles to current environmental problems. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of this program, students commonly take courses from many different departments, including Civil & Environmental Engineering, Biological Sciences, and Chemistry. Several students have also used the newly constructed Portage Lake Sewage Authority Wastewater Facility for their research and coursework. Current teaching and research emphases are:

• Fundamental understanding of the biological processes which control the fate and treatment of pollutants in natural and engineered systems
• Bioremediation of subsurface environments
• Modeling aerobic and anaerobic biological processes to estimate the rate of oxygen transfer, carbonaceous oxygen demand removal, and nutrient removal
• Modeling the fate of organic chemicals and metals during conventional wastewater treatment
• Development of data bases and predictive methods for biodegradation rate constants and other important environmental properties such as soil-water partition coefficients and chemical and biochemical oxygen demand.