Environmental Engineering and Technology (EET)

This program supports engineering research with the goal of reducing adverse effects of solid, liquid, and gaseous discharges into land, fresh and ocean waters, and air that result from human activity and impair the value of those resources in the context of ecological tenets. This program also supports research on innovative biological, chemical, and physical processes used alone or as components of engineered systems to restore the usefulness of polluted land, water, and air resources.

The program emphasizes engineering principles underlying pollution avoidance as well as pollution treatment and remediation. Improved sensors, innovative production processes, waste reduction and recycling, and industrial ecology are important to this program. Research may be directed toward improving the cost effectiveness of pollution avoidance as well as developing fresh principles for pollution avoidance technologies.