Graduate Progam
M.S. in Earth Resources Engineering (MS-ERE)
The MS-ERE program is designed for engineers and scientists who plan to pursue, or are already engaged in, environmental management/development careers. The focus of the program is the environmentally sound mining and processing of primary materials (minerals, energy, and water) and the recycling or proper disposal of used materials. The program also includes technologies for assessment and remediation of past damage to the environment. Students can choose a pace that allows them to complete the MS-ERE requirements while being employed.
MS-ERE graduates are specially qualified to work for engineering, financial, and operating companies engaged in mineral processing ventures, the environmental industry, environmental groups in all industries, and for city, state, and federal agencies responsible for the environment and energy/resourse conservation. At the present time, the U.S. environmental industry comprises nearly 30,000 big and small businesses with total revenues of over $150 billion. Sustainable development and environmental quality has become a top priority of government and industry in the United States and many other nations.
This M.S. program is offered in collaboration with the Departments of Civil Engineering and Earth and Environmental Sciences. Many of the teaching faculty are affiliated with Columbia’s Earth Engineering Center.
For students with a B.S. in engineering, at least 30 points (ten courses) are required. For students with a nonengineering B.S. or a B.A., preferably with a science major, up to 48 points (total of sixteen courses) may be required for makeup courses. All students are required to carry out a research project and write a thesis worth 3–6 points. A number of areas of study are available for the MSW-ERE, and students may choose courses that match their interest and career plans. The areas of study include:
• alternative energy and carbon management
• climate risk assessment and management
• environmental health engineering
• integrated waste management
• natural and mineral resource development and management
• novel technologies: surficial and colloidal chemistry and nanotechnology
• urban environments and spatial analysis
Additionally, there are four optional concentrations in the program, in each of which there are a number of required specific core courses and electives. In each case, students are required to carry out a research project and write a thesis (3–6 points). The concentrations are described briefly below; details and the lists of specific courses for each track are available from the department.
Water Resources and Climate Risks
Climate-induced risk is a significant component of decision making for the planning, design, and operation of water resource systems, and related sectors such as energy, health, agriculture, ecological resourses, and natural hazards control. Climatic uncertainties can be broadly classified into two areas: (1) those related to anthropogenic climate change; (2) those related to seasonal- to century-scale natural variations. The climate change issues impact the design of physical, social, and financial infrastructure systems to support the sectors listed above. The climate variability and predictablilty issues impact systems operation, and hence design. The goal of the M.S. concentration in water resources and climate risks is to provide (1) a capacity for understanding and quantifying the projections for climate change and variability in the context of decisions for water resources and related sectors of impact; and (2) skills for integrated risk assessment and mangement for operations and design, as well as for regional policy analysis and management. Specific areas of interest include:
• numerical and statistical modeling of global and regional climate systems and attendant uncertainties• methods for forecasting seasonal to interannual climate variations and their sectoral impacts
• models for design and operation of water resource systems, considering climate and other uncertainties
• integrated risk assessment and management across water resources and related sectors
Sustainable Energy
Building and shaping the energy infrastructure of the twenty-first century is one of the central tasks for modern engineering. The purpose of the sustainable energy concentration is to expose students to modern energy technologies and infrastructures and to the associated environmental, health, and resource limitations. Emphasis will be on energy generation and use technologies that aim to overcome the limits to growth that are experienced today. Energy and economic well-being are tightly coupled. Fossil fuel resources are still plentiful, but access to energy is limited by environmental and economic constraints. A future world population of 10 billion people trying to approach the standard of living of the developed nations cannot rely on today’s energy technologies and infrastructures without severe environmental impacts. Concerns over climate change and changes in ocean chemistry require reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, but most alternatives to conventional fossil fuels, including nuclear energy, are too expensive to fill the gap. Yet access to clean, cheap energy is critical for providing minimal resources: water, food, housing, and transportation.
Concentration-specific classes will sketch out the availability of resourcs, their geographic distribution, the economic and environmental cost of resource extraction, and avenues for increasing energy utilization efficiency, such as co-generation, district heating, and distributed generation of energy. Classes will discuss technologies for efficiency improvement in the generation and consumption sector; energy recovery from solid wastes; alternatives to fossil fuels, including solar and wind energy, and nuclear fission and fusion; and technologies for addressing the environmental concerns over the use of fossil fuels and nuclear energy. Classses on climate change, air quality, and health impacts focus on the consequences of energy use. Policy and its interactions with environmental sciences and energy engineering will be another aspect of the concentration. Additional specialization may consider region specific energy development.
Integrated Waste Management (IWM)
Humanity generates nearly 2 billion tons of municipal solid wastes (MSW) annually. Traditionally, these wastes have been discarded in landfills that have a finite lifetime and then must be replaced by converting more greenfields to landfills. This method is not sustainable because it wastes land and valuable resources. Also, it is a major source of greenhouse gases and of various several contaminants of air and water. In addition to MSW, the U.S. alone generates billions of tons of industrial and extraction wastes. Also, the by-product of water purification is a sludge or cake that must be disposed in some way. The IWM concentration prepares engineers to deal with the major problem of waste generation by exposing them to environmentally better means for dealing with wastes: waste reduction, recycling, composting, and waste-to-energy via combustion, anaerobic digestion, or gasification. Students are exposed not only to the technical aspects of integrated waste management but also to the associated economic, policy, and urban planning issues.
Since the initiation of the Earth and environmental engineering program in 1996, there have been several graduate research projects and theses that exemplify the engineering problems that will be encompassed in this concentration:
• design of an automated materials recovery facility• analysis of the bioreactor landfill
• generation of methane by anaerobic digestion of organic materials
• design of corrosion inhibitors
• flocculation modeling
• analysis of formation of dioxins in high-temperature processes
• combination of waste-to-energy and anaerobic digestion
• application of GIS in siting new WTE facilities
• corrosion phenomena in WTE combustion chambers
• mathematical modeling of transport phenomena in a combustion chamber
• effect of oxygen enrichment on combustion of paper and other types of solid wastes
• feasibility study and design of WTE facilities
Environmental Health Engineering
The purpose of this concentration is to train professionals who can address both the public health and engineering aspects of environmental problems. The identification and evaluation of environmental problems frequently revolve around the risks to human health, whereas the development of remediation or prevention strategies frequently involves engineering approaches. Currently, these two critical steps in addressing environmental problems are handled by two separate groups of professionals, public health practitioners and engineers, who usually have very little understanding of the role of the other profession in this process. The goal is to train those specialists collaboratively, through the Departments of Earth and Environmental Engineering and Environmental Health Sciences.
Joint Degree Programs
The Graduate School of Business and the School of Engineering and Applied Science offer a joint program leading to the M.B.A. degree from the Graduate School of Business and the M.S. degree in Earth resources engineering from the School of Engineering and Applied Science. The purpose of this program is to train students who wish to pursue Earth resource management careers.
Students are expected to register full time for three terms in the Graduate School of Business and for two terms in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. It is possible, however, to study in the School of Engineering and Applied Science part time. Interested persons should contact Professor Yegulalp at 212-854-2984 or by e-mail to yegulalp@ columbia.edu.
Doctoral Programs
EEE offers two doctoral degrees: (1) the Eng.Sc.D. degree, administered by The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science; and (2) the Ph.D. degree, administered by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Qualifying examinations and all other intellectual and performance requirements for these degrees are the same. All applicants should use the School of Engineering forms. The scope includes the design and use of sensors for measurement at molecular scale; the understanding of surface, colloid, aqueous, and high-temperature phenomena; the integrated management of multiple resources and the mitigation of natural and environmental hazards, at regional to global scales. The management of the interaction between human activities, Earth resources, and ecosystems is of primary interest.
The engineering objectives of EEE research and education include:
• management of water resources: understanding, prediction, and management of the processes that govern the quantity and quality of water resources, including the role of climate; development/operation of water resource facilities; management of water-related hazards.
• energy resources and carbon management: mitigation of environmental impacts of energy production; energy recovery from waste materials; advancement of energy efficient systems; new energy sources; development of carbon sequestration strategies.
• sensing and remediation: understanding of transport processes at different scales and in different media; containment systems; modeling flow and transport in surface and subsurface systems; soil/water decontamination and bioremediation.
The Professional Degrees
The department offers the professional degrees of Engineer of Mines (E.M.) and Metallurgical Engineer (Met.E.). In order to gain admission to both degree programs, students must have an undergraduate degree in engineering and complete at least 30 credits of graduate work beyond the M.S. degree, or 60 credits of graduate work beyond the B.S. degree. These programs are planned for engineers who wish to do advanced work beyond the level of the M.S. degree but who do not desire to emphasize research.
The professional degrees are awarded for satisfactory completion of a graduate program at a higher level of course work than is normally completed for the M.S. degree. Students who find it necessary to include master’s-level courses in their professional degree program will, in general, take such courses as deficiency courses. A candidate is required to maintain a grade-point average of at least 3.0. A student who, at the end of any term, has not attained the grade-point average required for the degree may be asked to withdraw. The final 30 credits required for the professional degree must be completed in no more than five years.
Specific requirements for both professional degrees include a set of core courses and a number of electives appropriate for the specific area of concentration. All course work must lead to the successful completion of a project in mining engineering. A list of core courses and electives is available at the department office.