Victoria Boyd '09 spent the summer before her first year at Clarkson working with Civil & Environmentnal Engineering Professor Tom Holsen on an EPA-funded study investigating the link between the atmospheric deposition of mercury and the contamination of aquatic plant life.

Clarkson combines two distinctive strengths that benefit students: Personalized teaching and high-powered research. Our professors get to know students as individuals. They also conduct world-class research in areas of vital importance — and involve undergraduates as well as graduate students in the process.

Some students gain research experience by participating on one of the SPEED (Student Projects for Engineering Experience and Design) teams. These teams, which compete against student teams from other universities, tackle complex, real-world challenges.

Other students work with faculty members, who conduct research in a number of areas, including:

• air resources engineering
• applied limnology and aquatic systems
• aquatic chemistry
• cold regions engineering
• geoenvironmental engineering
• sustainability
• groundwater contamination
• hazardous waste engineering
• hydraulics and water resources
• water treatment
• pollution prevention

A special program called Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) funds research for summer and academic year projects. Recent topics include:

• reducing energy consumption in personal computer use
• mine pit wall stabilization
• groundwater treatment cost analysis
• effect of sewage discharge on inter-tidal ecosystem
• removal of arsenite from drinking water
• cost assessment of digital image processing

Clarkson's multidisciplinary undergraduate labs have key areas for environmental engineering students. Equipment you can work with includes:

• atomic absorption and inductively coupled plasma spectrophotometers
• gas and liquid chromatographs
• hazardous waste remediation technologies
• mass spectrometer
• pilot scale water treatment facilities