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Environmental chemistry examines the interactions of pollutants with air, water, soil, and their exposures to humans and wildlife. The curriculum emphasizes the processes that control chemical behavior, transport, and fate as a function of environmental factors and chemical properties.
Current laboratory research focuses on understanding the processes that govern organic toxicant behavior in the aquatic environment. Fundamental research in the laboratory is also conducted to develop and test hypotheses of chemical behavior in the "real world."
The environmental chemistry laboratory participates in a large multi-agency effort that is developing a model for use in the Great Lakes that describes toxic chemical behavior. Additional projects concentrate on the relative roles of atmospheric versus non-atmospheric sources of chemicals to the Great Lakes and the state of Minnesota, to aid in the management and regulation of the ecosystem.
Degree Options
The Master of Science (M.S.) degree with a Plan A thesis is strongly encouraged. Most of the career opportunities that are available for the environmental chemist require the research skills and critical thinking that this option emphasizes. Students typically spend two years completing course requirements while working in the environmental chemistry laboratories on a funded research project that provides the basis of their plan A theses. Course work in this specialty is highly interdisciplinary and may include courses in civil engineering, chemistry, mechanical engineering, geology, soil science, ecology, or public policy. Students are admitted to the Graduate School's program in environmental health.
 The primary objective of the Ph.D. program is to bring students to a high level of academic competence through a combination of advanced course work and research. Students develop their dissertation topics from a funded research project. This thesis must make an original contribution to the body of knowledge in environmental health. Prospective doctoral students must have fulfilled the requirements of the master's program , or their equivalent, before admission to the program, or take additional courses to meet that level of knowledge once admitted.
Career Opportunities
Students completing a master's degree often go on to jobs in local and state health departments; state agencies (including the Department of Natural Resources and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency); federal agencies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Biologic Service, or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as private sector jobs. Students graduating from the doctoral program are particularly well suited for leadership roles in all of the agencies listed above, or for careers in research and academia.
Financial Assistance
Full-time master's and doctoral students are funded by research assistantships at 50 percent time. A 50% time research assistantship provides full tuition reimbursement and a salary. Students may also apply for several competitive scholarships available to environmental health students. Financial Assistance Information
Application Information
M.S. Curricula
Ph.D. Curricula
Primary Faculty in Environmental Chemistry
Deborah L. Swackhamer, Ph.D., Professor (chemical and biological factors that control the enviornmental fate and transport of organic contaminants, environmental analytical chemistry, aquatic chemistry).
Matt Simcik, Ph.D., Assistant Professor (fate and transport of organic contaminants in the atmosphere and waters of the Great Lakes).
Associated Faculty in Environmental Chemistry
Patrick L. Brezonik, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Director, Water Resources Reseach Center (biogeochemical processes in aquatic systems, with special emphasis on the impacts of human activity on water quality and element cycles in lakes)
Paul Capel, Ph.D., Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering; Research Chemist, U.S, Geological Survey (Behavior and fate of organic chemicals in surface and ground water and the atmosphere, environmental chemodynamics, environmental education)
Edward A. Nater, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Soil, Water, and Climate (Biogeochemistry of mercury and other heavy metals; environmental contamination of soils and terrestrial ecosystems; air-surface interactions for mercury and other heavy metals)
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