Environment

Faculty and students conduct interdisciplinary research to grasp the effects of particles on contaminants in the environment in order to either clean up existing groundwater contamination sites or to be able to design effective new disposal techniques for heavy metal industrial waste.

• Finding clues to pollution remediation that are earth-friendly, developing environmentally friendly chemical design processes
• Safer water and soil: Specializing in the treatment of contaminated groundwater and soils

"Our researchers are working to develop models that can be used to make groundwater cleanup efforts more efficient and to design more effective containment treatment strategies." -Jeremy B. Fein, Professor of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences

Addressing public health threats to water quality

Steve Silliman, Prof. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, takes students to Haiti and Benin to help villages establish supplies of safe drinking water. Read More >

When a combined sewer system overflows, waters carry a variety of pathogens and organic matter that are among the factors in orders to boil water before consumption.

Assistant Professor Jeffrey W. Talley is leading a diverse team of academic, industry, and municipal researchers from across the country to solve the problem. Notre Dame researchers are studying environmental processes and treatment of contaminated surface water, groundwater, soil and sediment.

"In studying the many facets of the combined sewer overflow problem, we were looking for a way to improve water quality in municipal water-sewer systems without wreaking havoc on a city’s finances or daily activities." –Jeffrey W. Talley, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences

Funding: $1 million grant from the Indiana 21st Century Research and Technology Fund.

• Talley’s bio
• Collaborations

Pursuing solutions-oriented environmental research

Protecting the environment from heavy metals, chemical processes, and nuclear waste, Notre Dame’s Center for Environmental Science and Technology (CEST) provides international service such as water quality initiatives in Chile and Benin, Africa.