Please use the links below to learn more about our research interests and capabilities.  If you would like more detailed information regarding our research, please see our most recent Research Activities Brochure.

ENV Research Highlights – 2004 Year in Review

Departmental Research Capabilities: 

• Cost Analysis
• Environmental Engineering and Science
• Engineering Management
• Information Resource Management
• Research and Development Management
• Strategic Leadership and Management

Faculty Research Interest

Engineering research laboratory:

AFIT added a new, 29,915 square foot, $8.2 million engineering research laboratory (Bldg 644) to the main campus in 2001.  This facility houses 16,281 net square feet of laboratories in four research suites:  aerospace research facilities, applied physics laboratories, a microelectronics “clean room,” and an environmental science and engineering laboratory.  The environmental suite, primarily used by faculty and students within the Department of Systems and Engineering Management, provides laboratory research capability in a number of different areas.

• The Nuclear Environmental Science Laboratory supports research in the application of nuclear measurement techniques and has state-of-the-art equipment for detecting and measuring all sources of alpha, beta, gamma, and neutron radiation.
• The Environmental Analytical Chemistry Laboratory provides measurement tools for laboratory and field characterization of contaminants.
• The Environmental Restoration Laboratory provides the capability to study soil sorption processes in batch and stirred reactors, a dual-gas respirometer for measuring oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide evolution from soil or aquatic microorganisms, and equipment for microbiological water quality analyses and light microscopy. For environmental field sampling and analysis, the laboratory also has field sampling equipment to acquire ground water, surface water, soil, and airborne particulate samples. 

Vertical, upward flow wetland system:

AFIT has constructed a vertical, upward flow wetland system in the field for studying the remediation of contaminated water by natural wetland processes. Two parallel cells (each 2,500 square feet by 6 feet deep)receive water from a groundwater extraction well capturing a plume of dissolved perchloroethylene (PCE). Nearly 100% treatment of PCE and its degradation products is achieved while the water flows through sequential sediment layers designed to provide complete treatment. A 3-dimensional sampling net is established throughout the cells using drive-point piezometers. Students perform sampling in the field and analyze them in AFIT's new laboratory facilities to determine conditions that can be optimized for treating other kinds of contaminant plumes in other environments. Student models of the process kinetics are also validated at the field site to confirm construction guidelines for other locations. The constructed wetland site at AFIT serves as a point of collaboration with other universities.