As our world becomes seemingly ever smaller due to increasing population size and declining natural resources,
environmental engineering has emerged as a field of critical importance to society.
Established at Hopkins in 1968 but with roots dating to 1937, the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, DoGEE, has always
been concerned with identifying, understanding, describing and solving environmental problems. Our core mission is to
improve the human condition through the development and promotion of sound, sustainable environmental practices,
and to educate future generations of environmental leaders. The department's graduate and undergraduate programs in environmental engineering have been consistently ranked among the top ten U.S. universities by available national rankings. For detailed information, click here.
Departmental Research Highlights and News
 Senior Design Students and External Consultants - 2006
The Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering (DoGEE) graduated its second group of undergraduate majors in May 2006. This past Spring 2006, these students were involved in a Senior Design Class where they interacted with external consultants to plan a treatment upgrade for nutrient removal at the Western Branch  Wastewater Treatment Plant near Washington, D.C. The students and external consultants shown in the photograph are Dan Eagan (DoGEE senior), Tursina Abdul Rashid (DoGEE senior), Sam Grant (City of Baltimore), Nicole Fahrenfeld (DoGEE senior), Ray Schulte (KCI Engineering), Maya Sathyanadhan (DoGEE senior), Kevin Selock (Washington Suburban Sanitation Commission) and Nick Shirodkar (Western Branch Plant Engineer). The second photograph shows the students during their final design presentation. DoGEE is particularly grateful to the external consultants for their expertise, time and enthusiasm on this project. Faculty organizing the 2006 Senior Design Class were Hedi Alavi, Bill Ball, Edward Bouwer, and Charlie O'Melia.
 Senior Design
Students and External Consultants - 2005
The Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering (DoGEE) will proudly graduate its first four undergraduate students
in May 2005. In the Spring semester, these students have been involved in a Senior Design Class where they interacted with
external consultants to plan a treatment upgrade for nutrient removal at the Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant in Baltimore.
The students and external consultants shown in the photograph are Ray Schulte (JMT Engineering), Mitch Buck (DoGEE senior),
Rica Enriquez (DoGEE senior), Joel Weitzman (DoGEE senior), Amanda Hughes (DoGEE senior), Sam Grant (City of Baltimore),
Bob Wimmer (JMT Engineering), and Pete Thomson (KCI Technologies, Inc.). DoGEE is particularly grateful to the external
consultants for their expertise, time and enthusiasm on this project. Faculty organizing the 2005 Senior Design Class were
Hedi Alavi, Bill Ball, Edward Bouwer, and Charlie O'Melia.
Ozone Research by DoGEE Grad is Subject of VOA Radio Broadcast
Former DoGEE graduate Dr. Michelle Bell (currently on the faculty at the
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies) recently completed and published (together with colleagues from the Johns
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, or JAMA, that looks at
the connection between high ozone pollution levels and death rates in the U.S. The study was sponsored by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, EPA, to assess its current standards for ozone pollution. In it, scientists looked at 14 years of ozone and
death records from 95 American cities -- approximately 40 percent of the population of the U.S. A close link is found betweent
ozone pollution -- which comes primarily from traffic and power plant emissions -- and mortality. The study was the subject of
an interview by the "Voice of America" radio broadcasting network. More information is available
here.
 DoGEE student rides
flood wave through Grand Canyon
From Nov 21 to 24, the US Bureau of Reclamation released an artificial flood o
f 41,000 cubic feet per second from Glen Canyon Dam. The goal of the flood was to transport sand and build beaches in Grand
Canyon. The release was triggered by observations of sand delivered to the upstream end of the Grand Canyon from a
tributary. Paul Grams, a Ph.D. student in Geography and Environmental Engineering, was part of a crew that launched a
river trip just as the peak of the flood wave entered Grand Canyon, following the wave crest for 16 hours (including running
rapids in the dark) to collect samples of sand concentration. Other crews sampled continuously at particular locations
along the Canyon. Grams and his advisor, Professor Peter Wilcock, are part of a team developing a model to predict the rate at
which sand is transported through the canyon. Since the construction of Glen Canyon Dam in 1963, the supply of sand from upriver
has been eliminated, causing the sand beaches to erode. According to Professor Wilcock, “parts of the canyon are now
approaching a condition where there is little sand left to provide habitat for native species or camping for rafters. A
sustainable management plan will require trapping every little bit of sand. The model we are collaborating on is intended
to show how to most efficiently build sand beaches with the remaining sand supplies”.
Multiphase Flow in Pourous Media
In this photo, Assistant Professor Markus Hilpert and PhD
tudent Elizabeth Liu are using the Advanced Photon Source at the Argonne National Laboratory to take highly resolved images
of an organic pollutant infiltrating a water-saturated sand. These images provide the morphological properties of the multiphase
system and are used to validate our Lattice-Boltzmann simulations of multiphase flow in porous media. These experiments and
simulations improve our understanding of flow and entrapment of organic liquids in the subsurface and may assist in engineering
cleanup of groundwater contaminations.
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