Dr. Samuel P. Massie
  Chair
Dr. Edward J. Martin
202-806-6572
202-806-5271 (fax)
 

Environmental Research and Training

Ongoing environmental research programs at Howard University include:

	Microbiological degradation of hazardous substances and determination of microbiological behavior under oxygen-starved conditions
	Pollution reduction; waste minimization; and recycling, reuse, and recovery of usable materials
	Air emissions estimation from hazardous waste management disposal facilities using risk analysis techniques for determining the potential impact on human health
	Incineration techniques for destroying hazardous waste

Research Facilities

A cooperative agreement with the University of Michigan and California Institute of Technology will provide Howard University with a platform to extend its research in bioremediation. The combined effort will focus on using atomistic simulations for site cleanup applications.

The Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic Hazardous Substance Research Center (GLMAC) supported by Howard University, Michigan State University, and the University of Michigan serves Environmental Protection Agency Regions III and V. The University of Michigan serves as the lead institution. The goal of the center is to find innovative technologies to remediate hazardous organic contaminants. GLMAC specializes in bioremediation and emphasizes interdisciplinary research teams working together to perform fundamental research on in situ bioremediation, surfactant introduction, and bioventing.

In 1989, the environmental engineering group opened an incineration laboratory with laboratory-scale instruments for sampling and analyzing gaseous or solid pollutants.

Located in the School of Engineering, the Materials Science Research Center of Excellence's (MSRCE's) interdisciplinary research team is dedicated to the resolution of problems associated with the growth, characterization, and fabrication of novel electronic and electro-optic materials and devices for high-power, high-frequency, and high-temperature applications. MSRCE researchers are from the following disciplines: electrical, chemical, and mechanical engineering as well as chemistry and physics. MSRCE was established and is supported through the resources of the National Science Foundation.

Howard University has established a Center for the Study of Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial Atmospheres sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. At the center’s completion, there will be four laboratories—atmospheric chemistry, satellite data analysis, atmospheric modeling, and sensor development and platform design—that will bring together faculty researchers from the Departments of Chemistry, Geology, Physics, and Electrical and Mechanical Engineering.

Howard University's Institute for Science, Space, and Technology promotes research-related activities in environmental monitoring/measurement; natural resources location, identification, quantification, and visualization; and atmospheric monitoring.

Major Equipment

	Silicon Graphics and Cray supercomputers
	Hewlett Packard Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer
	5890 Series II Gas Chromatograph
	Perkin-Elmer 3030 atomic absorption spectrophotometer
	Hewlett Packard 1050 high-performance liquid chromatograph
	Waters Millipore WISP 710B liquid chromatograph
	Hydro pure water reverse osmosis system
	Shimadzu UV-1601 UV-visible spectrophotomer
	Milton Roy 601 Spectronic spectrophotometer
	Gilson high-performance liquid chromatograph
	Fisher Scientific 228 centrifuge

Faculty Profiles

Joseph N. Cannon, Chemical Engineering (Ph.D., University of Colorado).
Research interests: Transport phenomena in environmental systems, computational fluid mechanics, and heat transfer.

Ramesh Chawla, Chemical Engineering (Ph.D., Wayne State University).
Research interests: Chemical kinetics, bioremediation, and environmental engineering.

S. K. Dutta, Microbiology (Ph.D., Kansas State University).
Research interests: Identification of genes capable of on-site biodegradation using DNA probes.

Lorraine Fleming, Geotechnical Engineering (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley).
Research interests: Behavior of soils subjected to cyclic freezing and thawing, use of a finite element and heat, mass transfer code to simulate movement of contaminants in the vadose zone, use of surfactant, and surface load for soil washing.

James H. Johnson, Jr., Applied Sciences (Ph.D.).
Research interests: The use of composting technology to remediate PAH-, TNT-, and BTEX-contaminated soils and the use of biological granular activated carbon systems to tread BTEX-contaminated groundwater.

Kimberly L. Jones, Environmental Engineering (Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University).
Research interests: Physical-chemical treatment of water and wastewater, membrane processes for water and wastewater treatment, and membrane fouling and hydraulics of hollow fiber membrane filtration.

Edward J. Martin, Environmental Engineering.
Research interests: Technology transfer, risk analysis, wastewater treatment, hazardous waste incineration, and environmental quality control.

M. Gopala Rao, Chemical Engineering (Ph.D., University of Washington).
Research interests: Separation processes, energy systems, and nuclear waste storage.

John Rier, Biology (Ph.D., Harvard University).
Research interests: The effects of ozone on the growth and enzyme activity of plant tissue and the use of plants to metabolize hazardous material.

John P. Tharakan, Chemical Engineering (Ph.D., University of California, San Diego).
Research interests: Reactor design and bioprocess engineering.

For more information about tasking Howard University
for technical support, contact:
Cathy S. Fore
LMES HBCU/MEI Involvement Program Coordinator
Phone: 423-576-6838
e-mail: forecs@ornl.gov

Prepared by Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05-84OR21400

April 1997