Message from the Chair

Welcome to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Exciting things are happening at the Department. Approval of the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering with an emphasis in Environmental Engineering/Water Resources was recently granted and the Department is actively recruiting students for the Fall 2004 semester. Interested students should see our Graduate Information web page for admissions information and individual faculty web pages for a list of research projects.

The Department is also investigating offering degrees in other areas of Civil Engineering and I encourage you to take our survey; the results of which will be used to determine the focus areas of the new degree program.

All CEE faculty also hold appointments in the University of Maryland System-wide Marine, Estuarine, and Environmental Science (MEES) Graduate Program through which UMBC graduate students can alternatively pursue M.S. and Ph.D. degrees working under the mentorship of the CEE faculty. CEE is developing an Environmental Engineering track for undergraduate students in the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering as well as working with the Departments of Geography and Environmental Systems and Public Policy on developing an interdisciplinary Ph.D. Degree in Urban Environmental Systems.

CEE recently completed renovation of four wet laboratories (over 2000 sq ft) and a computer lab. CEE offices are co-located with those of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study and the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education (CUERE) in the Technology Research Center at UMBC.

I would like to welcome Dr. Claire Welty, Dr. Joel Baker, Dr. Richard Pouyat, and Mr. Kenneth Belt to our department. Dr. Welty has joined CEE Department as a full professor and is also Director of the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education. Her research interests are in groundwater flow and contaminant transport and urban watershed hydrology. Dr. Baker is a Professsor at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory and joins CEE as Adjunct Professor. His research interests include simulation models of exposure and bioaccumulation, exchange rates of agrichemicals and aromatic hydrocarbons in aquatic systems. Dr. Pouyat, senior scientist with the U.S. Forest Service, joins the department as Adjunct Professor. Dr. Pouyat's research interests are focused on understanding the functional roles of humans in ecological systems, specifically in the effects humans have on soil properties, soil biota, biogeochemical processes, and vegetation dynamics in forest ecosystems. Ken Belt, a Forest Service hydrologist, joins the department as a Senior Research Scientist. Mr. Belt focuses on the integration of urban water infrastructure with natural hydrologic systems and the implications for stream ecosystems. His interests include carbon and particulate organic matter transport and processing, nutrients, pathogens, stream and runoff temperatures, and urban water budgets.

CEE faculty are actively working with both CUERE and the MEES program on issues that affect the health of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

Sincerely, Brian E. Reed