A generous gift from David M. Spatz of West Hills Lake, Tex., has established the David M. Spatz '68 Endowed Chair to support the Director of Clarkson University’s nationally- recognized Engineering and Management (E&M) Program. The endowment will contribute to salary, benefits, and research funds for the Spatz Chair.
Professor Michelle Crimi ‘95, current Director of the Engineering & Management Program at Clarkson, with a joint appointment as Professor in the Institute for a Sustainable Environment, is the inaugural recipient of the Spatz Endowed Chair.
Spatz said he wanted to establish this endowment because, “Clarkson gave me a really strong education, learning environment, and campus experience which became the foundation of my success in life.”
Clarkson Provost Robyn Hannigan says this endowment will ignite those connections for students for years to come. “This professorship will enable experiential learning and high-quality research to be part of the fabric of Clarkson forever."
When Spatz created this endowed chair, it was important to him that the professor named to the position would work hard to encourage students to think like entrepreneurs. Crimi embodies that mindset; she and her business partner, Fiona Laramay, co-founded the company RemWell to treat groundwater contamination using a novel and sustainable approach.
“RemWell addresses groundwater contamination from a particularly challenging suite of contaminants, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). We have developed a reactor (the InSRT reactor) that will treat these contaminants fully on-site and underground directly where the contamination occurs, which can save contaminated sites up to 40 percent in annual operating costs. In addition to reactor sales, RemWell offers design and consulting services to assure proper implementation of InSRT,” Crimi said.
“There is currently no approach aside from InSRT available that will treat PFAS in groundwater that doesn’t require energy-intensive pumping and/or expensive materials management,” she said.
Crimi’s research focuses on developing in situ treatment technologies for groundwater contamination, determining the impact of groundwater technologies on aquifer quality, and integrating treatment technologies for optimized risk reduction. Her recent work has focused on the treatment of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and other emerging contaminants. Crimi’s projects are often conducted in partnerships with industry and consulting organizations and often have a strong technology transfer focus with the objective of moving technologies from the laboratory to full-scale adoption by developing guidance, tools, protocols, and workshops to support field application. She earned her bachelor of science degree in Industrial Hygiene and Environmental Toxicology from Clarkson University, her master of science degree in Environmental Health from Colorado State University, and her Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. She currently teaches courses in Team-Based Design & Innovation and Technological Entrepreneurship.
