The Rensselaer Environmental Engineering program brings together _ dedicated people to study and work on the pressing environmental issues of our time. We prepare students for environmental careers in consulting engineering practice, private industry, national and international research laboratories, government agencies and academia, as well as in many cross-disciplinary areas of engineering, science and public policy.

The department maintains close ties with people and organizations in all these career venues through an active research agenda and a vibrant alumni community. Student needs and career objectives are met through a well-crafted, rigorous, and interdisciplinary curriculum that stresses hands-on learning, grounding in fundamentals, and practical experience.

Our long-standing tradition of education in environmental problem solving at Rensselaer spans from the early water analysis work of William Pitt Mason (the pioneer of such activities in the United States) in the later 1800's to the visionary environmental engineering ideas of Edward J. Kilcawley who introduced environmental engineering as an option in the mid-1940's and as a degree program in the mid-1950's.

In addition to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, there are faculty members with teaching and research interests in environmental problem solving in the Departments of Biology, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Earth and Environmental Sciences and Applied Math.