Environmental Health and Engineering

More detailed requirements for students enrolling at JHU for Fall 2025 will be available on this page when the JHU e-Catalogue is published in early July.

Overview

Environmental engineers plan, design, and operate technological systems to prevent, control, or remediate pollution. They evaluate and design public policy and conduct research to understand and solve environmental problems. Our degree program is flexible enough to accommodate students with a variety of interests in Environmental Engineering.

Programs

Majors

The Department of Environmental Health and Engineering (EHE) offers an undergraduate Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Environmental Engineering with five focus areas within the environmental engineering major:

We also offer a five-year concurrent (BS/MS or BS/MSE) program.

Minors

Environmental engineering has become an important aspect of engineering practice in most engineering fields, and the discipline spans the professional spectrum from the private sector through governmental agencies to academia. An undergraduate minor in environmental engineering allows engineering students to pursue an interest in this field and to incorporate aspects of environmental engineering into careers in other engineering disciplines.​ We offer three minors.

Research

​​Students can participate in research across the department in the following areas:

• ​Chemical composition of gas particles in the air to improve our understanding of climate, air quality, and health impacts of pollutants
• ​Landscape hydrology; how the structure of landscapes controls the movement of water from rainfall to streams, and how that structure evolves over time
• ​Systems analysis and economics to improve electric utility planning, operations, and policy, as well as management of environmental and water resources systems
• ​Complex systems dynamics, resilience
• ​Satellite data and statistics to understand greenhouse gas emissions across the globe
• ​Occurrence and fate of organic contaminants in the urban water cycle and their impact on environmental and human health
• ​Microorganisms and environmental drivers of impairments to inland and coastal water bodies such as oxygen depletion and algal blooms
• ​Mathematical models to shed light on complex environmental and earth systems and to predict future trends within those systems
• ​Electrochemistry to achieve a sustainable energy-water infrastructure, and environmentally sustainable production of chemicals
• ​Biotechnologies to produce bioenergy and biochemicals to substitute fossil fuel-based products
• ​chemistry foundations to biogeochemical processes to address issues of anthropogenic chemicals in the environment and engineered systems​

After Graduation

​​Our program provides ideal preparation for future employment in business, industry, or government for subsequent training at the graduate level, either in Environmental Engineering or in a field such as environmental law, public health, or medicine. Graduates in this field work in private consulting firms, industrial firms, regulatory agencies, nongovernmental agencies (NGOs), international agencies, research laboratories, and universities.​

Activities

​​​​Students in the department get involved in the Environmental Health and Engineering Student Organization (EHE-SO), which organizes local river clean-ups, community service opportunities, and social gatherings.​