Dr. James Mihelcic, Program Director
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Dr. James R. Mihelcic is internationally recognized for his leadership and high impact research and education contributions that have advanced: 1) incorporation of sustainability science and engineering principles into the design, assessment, and management of critical engineering infrastructures; 2) global environmental health engineering in low and middle income countries (including water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) & developing an intervention found to significantly reduce childhood blood lead levels from water supply); 3) rethinking engineering education for 21st century learning; and 4) sustainable management of water critical infrastructures over different physical scales. He is the lead author of the first journal article that articulated the case for a new discipline of sustainability science and engineering (Sustainability Science and Engineering: Emergence of a New Metadiscipline, Environmental Science & Technology, 37(23):5314-5324, 2003) and the first engineering textbook that incorporated principles of sustainable design and development.
He is a Fellow with the Water Environment Federation (WEF) and Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP), past president of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP), and a Board Certified Environmental Engineering Member and past Board Trustee with the American Academy of Environmental Engineers & Scientists (AAEES). Dr. Mihelcic has also appointed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Administrator to serve two terms as a member of their Chartered Science Advisory Board (SAB). Dr. Mihelcic has authored over 200 journal articles, book chapters, conference proceedings, and peer reviewed reports. He is lead author for several impactful engineering textbooks (published in Spanish and Portuguese) that include: Fundamentals of Environmental Engineering (John Wiley & Sons, 1999); Field Guide in Environmental Engineering for Development Workers: Water, Sanitation, Indoor Air (ASCE Press, 2009); and, Environmental Engineering: Fundamentals, Sustainability, Design (1st and 2nd Editions, John Wiley & Sons, 1st, 2nd, 3rd Editions). He is also co-editor (or author) of all 16 sanitation chapters in the 2020 book titled Sanitation and Disease in the 21st Century: Health and Microbiological Aspects of Excreta and Wastewater Management (UNESCO & Michigan State). In the past few years he led creation of a novel baccalaureate environmental engineering program that meets ABET accreditation requirements and emphasizes the themes of infrastructure, sustainability, health, data science, and global citizenship. Professor Mihelcic s a Fellow with the Water Environment Federation (WEF) and Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP), past president of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP), a Board Certified Environmental Engineering Member and past Board Trustee with the American Academy of Environmental Engineers & Scientists (AAEES). Dr. Mihelcic currently serves as an Associate Editor for Environmental Science & Technology and Environmental Science & Technology Letters and previously served two terms as a member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Chartered Science Advisory Board (SAB). Dr. Mihelcic has authored over 200 published journal articles, book chapters, conference proceedings, and peer reviewed reports. He is also lead author for 4 engineering textbooks that include: Fundamentals of Environmental Engineering (John Wiley & Sons, 1999); Field Guide in Environmental Engineering for Development Workers: Water, Sanitation, Indoor Air (ASCE Press, 2009); and, Environmental Engineering: Fundamentals, Sustainability, Design (1st and 2nd Editions, John Wiley & Sons, 1st, 2nd, 3rd Editions). He is also co-editor of all 16 sanitation chapters (for onsite and centralized treatment for the recent book titled Sanitation and Disease in the 21st Century: Health and Microbiological Aspects of Excrete and Wastewater Management. In the past few years he led development of a novel B.S. in Environmental Engineering that will meet national ABET accreditation requirements and emphasize the themes of infrastructure, sustainability, health, data science, and global citizenship. Top three career accomplishments
His research team uncovered a previously unknown, and important route, of childhood exposure to lead (Pb) pollution in Sub-Saharan Africa legacy water systems and the role that unregulated informal economic activities have in creating markedly high Pb exposures. His research over the past 10+ years resulted in a local and cost-effective pump intervention that was proven to significantly reduce childhood blood lead levels (BLLs). This research has attracted the attention of the U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and UNICEF after the global reaction to calls for a Lead-Free Future that were made at the World Economic Form in January 2024. Much of this global research collaborations have been supported by U.S. National Science Foundation (Bolivia, Madagascar), U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) (in Burkina Faso, Uganda, and Madagascar) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), as well as through a transformative engineering partnership he created with U.S. Peace Corps in over 24 countries. The Peace Corps partnership was initiated in 1997 (before creation of EWB-USA in 2000) to allow graduate engineering students to integrate Peace Corps training and service as a WaSH engineer with research-focused graduate education. To date 117 students have graduated from this program, many who have been employed by humanitarian and development organizations, including USAID, CDC, UNICEF, UNHCR, Oxfam, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, WaterAid, and Doctors without Borders. In 2017 he started a Peace Corps Coverdell Program that allows returned Peace Corps volunteers to obtain a graduate engineering degree that includes credit for a community-engaged service learning project in a marginalized U.S. community. He has identified ten Grand Challenges where environmental engineering should assume a more active presence to achieve sustainability in developing regions of the world. (The grandest challenge of all: The role of environmental engineering to achieve sustainability in the world's developing regions, Environmental Engineering Science, 34(1):16-41). His globally relevant book, Field Guide in Environmental Engineering for Development Workers: Water, Sanitation, Indoor Air (ASCE Press, 2009) is widely used by U.S. and international educators and NGOs. That book shows one engineers infrastructures (from conception to design to construction) to achieve SDGs related to WaSH and indoor air pollution in low- or middle-income settings. ASCE has stated the “book is a valuable resource for engineering students, faculty, and practitioners involved with programs like Engineers Without Borders, Water for People, and Engineers for a Sustainable Future, as well as those affiliated with government groups, international agencies, and charitable organizations.” When it was published, the book took a first-place award in the Book Design & Effectiveness Awards Competition, sponsored by Washington Book Publishers. The book also took second place in the category of Technical Text, competing with books from other large nonprofit publishers, such as Johns Hopkins University Press and the World Bank. In addition, Professor Mihelcic wrote or co-edited all 16 sanitation technology chapters for the seminal 2020 book Sanitation and Disease in the 21st Century: Health and Microbiological Aspects of Excreta and Wastewater Management (co-published by UNESCO and Michigan State) This book (designed for an international audience of policy makers and design engineers) updated the benchmark reference work on water related disease risks and intervention measures (Sanitation and Disease: Health Aspects of Excreta and Wastewater Management, Feachem et al.) after 40 years. In 2023 as the United Nations 2030 Agenda’s fifteen-year plan to achieve the SDGs reached it half-way point, he directed special issues in the high impact scientific journals Environmental Science & Technology and Environmental Technology Letters to disseminate the latest transformational, direction-setting and timely research enabling significant advances towards achieving the SDGs. 2) Incorporation of sustainability science and engineering principles into design, assessment, and management of critical water resource infrastructures. Professor Mihelcic has made transformational contributions in reshaping the discipline of engineering by leading efforts to incorporate sustainable design, sustainable development, and achievement of global competency in his research and teaching. He is the lead author of the first journal article that articulated the case for a new discipline of sustainability science and engineering (Sustainability Science and Engineering: Emergence of a New Metadiscipline, Environmental Science & Technology, 37(23):5314-5324, 2003) and the first engineering textbook that incorporated principles of sustainable design and development. That book, Environmental Engineering: Fundamentals, Sustainability, Design (John Wiley & Sons) is now in its 3rd Edition (first edition published in 2009) . It has been translated into Spanish and Portuguese, has been adopted by close to 100 U.S. universities, and sold 13,750 hard copies (March, 2024) (number does not include schools that go through a 3rd-party distributor). For decades he has spoken extensively on the need to incorporate principles of sustainable design and development into the training of early career scientists and engineers (e.g. engineering organizations such as ASEE, AEESP, ASCE, ASME, ACS, AICHE, EWB), He led or co-led development of multiples ASEE workshops, panels, and presentations on this topic. For example, in 2006 Engineering Education for International Sustainability: Curriculum Design under the Sustainable Futures Modeling); in 2010 Development and Dissemination of Learning Suites for Sustainability Integration in Engineering Education; in 2012 (Challenges for Integration of Sustainability into Engineering Education); and in 2019 (More than Goal Six: Integrating Multiple Sustainable Development Goals into Classroom Teaching and Student Learning). A paper he coauthored titled Civil and Environmental Engineering Education (CEEE) Transformational Change: Tools and Strategies for Sustainability Integration and Assessment in Engineering Education” was awarded a best paper award from ASEE’s Environmental Engineering Division. He has also written several well-cited peer reviewed journal articles on incorporating sustainability into engineering education while also showing how that theme will attract under-represented groups into engineering. 3) Incorporation of sustainability principles into design, assessment, and management of critical water resource infrastructures (includes technology development and demonstrations). Dr. Mihelcic’s is an early adopter of exploring the water-energy nexus and potential of recovering resources from wastewater in this research in the areas of water supply, water reuse, and wastewater treatment. (Embodied Energy Comparison of Surface Water and Groundwater Supply Options, Water Research, 45(17):5577-5586, 2011; A Review of Sanitation Technologies to achieve Multiple Sustainable Development Goals that Promote Resource Recovery, Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, 4:16-32, 2018). His research has assessed the environmental and economic benefits of recovery of resources from wastewater (across different physical scales) (How Does Scale of Implementation Impact the Environmental Sustainability of Wastewater Treatment Integrated with Resource Recovery? Environmental Science & Technology, 50(13):6680-6689, 2016) and developed/demonstrated new technologies for resource recovery and management of nitrogen pollution at the household level and also centralized treatment plants. He has shown the unique opportunity that integrating nutrient recovery with safe water reuse has for agricultural zones that surround urbanizing areas (Wastewater Infrastructure for Small Cities in an Urbanizing World: Integrating the Protection of Human Health and the Environment with Resource Recovery and Food Security, Environmental Science & Technology, 47:3598–3605, 2013; Managing Microbial Risks from Indirect Wastewater Reuse for Irrigation in Urbanizing Watersheds, Environmental Science & Technology, 50:6803–6813, 2016). Some of this research has also helped us better understand the fate and risk of pathogens associated with bioenergy production and different water reuse scenarios (Assessing the Fate of Ascaris suum Ova during Mesophilic Anaerobic Digestion, Environmental Science & Technology, 49:3128−3135, 2015). In terms of wastewater technologies, his research has advanced knowledge on the fate of pathogens in onsite (includes urine diverting and composting sanitation technologies as well as centralized wastewater management systems that utilize natural treatment systems such as wastewater stabilization ponds and constructed wetlands (Pathogen Destruction and Solids Decomposition in Composting Latrines: Study of Fundamental Mechanisms and User Operation in Rural Panama, Journal of Water and Health, 9:187-199, 2010. A Review of Virus Removal in Wastewater Treatment Pond Systems, Water Research, 71:107-124, 2015; Constructed wetland technology for the treatment and reuse of urban household greywater under conditions of Africa's Sahel region. Water Supply, 23:2505-2516, 2023). He has also demonstrated novel technology for nutrient reduction in stormwater bioretention systems (demonstrated within a low-income marginalized communities) (Long-Term Performance of a Conventional and Modified Bioretention System for Removing Dissolved Nitrogen Species in Stormwater Runoff, Water Research, 170:115336, 2020). His research has also assessed inequitable access to greenspace in both U.S. and Latin American communities (Assessing Equitable Access to Urban Green Space: The Role of Engineered Water Infrastructure, Environmental Science & Technology, 45 16:728–6734, 2011; Accessibility and Usability: Green Space Preferences, Perceptions, and Barriers in a Rapidly Urbanizing City in Latin America, Landscape and Urban Planning, 107:272-282, 2012). He was a leader on a team encompassing the research community, practitioners, USEPA, NSF, and DOE on development of a national testbed network to accelerate innovation in the area of resource recovery from wastewater (Mihelcic et al. Accelerating Innovation that Enhances Resource Recovery in the Wastewater Sector: Advancing a National Testbed Network, Environmental Science & Technology, 51:7749-7758, 2017). The outcome of the workshops associated with this effort was creation of the Facilities Accelerating Science & Technology (FAST) Water Network to assist those developing and piloting technologies for the water sector. The FAST Network works to connect researchers, new technology providers, and other innovators in the water industry with test facilities appropriate for their needs. It also aims to manage risk and accelerate the adoption of innovation by engaging the broader water community. Lastly, Professor Mihelcic has charted a path forward with multiple high profile and competitive federal grants from NSF and USEPA to support meaningful collaboration with non-scientist community members, working in marginalized communities, and successfully included engaging social scientists and community engagement in his research and developed and demonstrated innovative and appropriate technologies and strategies for water reuse and nutrient management for stormwater and municipal wastewater. |
