Earth and Environmental Engineering (MS-EEE)

M.S. in Earth and Environmental Engineering (M.S.-EEE)

The M.S.-EEE 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) to the recycling and proper disposal of used materials. The program also includes technologies for assessment and remediation of damages to the environment including water treatment, processing of mine tailings, and carbon capture, utilization and storage. Students can choose a pace that allows them to complete the M.S.-EEE requirements while being employed.

M.S.-EEE graduates are specially qualified to work for engineering, financial startup, and operating companies engaged in the earth resources development and environmental industries and technologies, environmental groups in all industries, and for city, state, and federal agencies responsible for the environment and energy/resource conservation. At the present time, the U.S. environmental industry comprises nearly 30,000 big and small businesses with total revenues of more than $150 billion. Sustainable development, climate change adaptation and mitigation, as well as environmental quality have become top priorities of government and industries 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. Students may carry out a research project (3 credits) or write a thesis worth 6 points. A number of areas of study are available for the M.S.-EEE, and students may choose courses that match their interest and career plans.

Additionally, there are three optional concentrations in the program, in each of which there are a number of required specific core courses and electives. The concentrations are described briefly below; details and the lists of specific courses for each track are available from the department. Students interested in a specific focus in Mining Engineering or related fields should consult their faculty adviser for relevant course listings.

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 resources, 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.

Climate change impacts the design of physical, social, and financial infrastructure systems to support the sectors listed above. The climate variability and predictability 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 management for operations and design, as well as for regional policy analysis and management.

Required classes include:

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 resources, their geographic distribution, the economic and environmental cost of resource extraction, and avenues for increasing energy utilization efficiency, such as cogeneration, 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, energy storage; and technologies for addressing the environmental concerns over the use of fossil fuels. Classes 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. Required classes include:

Sustainable Mining and Materials

Earth mineral and metal resources are the backbone of civilization and are critical to economic development and meeting the demands of a growing population. their development today faces several big challenges:

  1. declining value content in the available ore bodies and poor quality of the resources;
  2. increasing focus on safety and health risks, and environmental impacts;
  3. inefficient and high energy and water consumption;
  4. huge risks associated with waste generation and management.

It is well recognized in the earth resource development industry that the traditional processing paradigm is no longer sustainable and cannot address these serious challenges. The overall goal of industry to develop and implement technologies for sensible and sustainable use of earth resources is part of a "mines of the future" paradigm, which encompasses topics such as mine-to-metal integration, modular processing, digital optimization, machine learning and AI, sensors and chemometrics, benign process chemicals, and a host of other forward-looking concepts. A similar effort and outlook exists for urban mining and recycling. The transformation of waste to energy and the recovery of minerals from recycling streams are examples of these areas that EEE is a world leader in. The EEE program in Sustainable Mining and Materials integrates foundational engineering principles and processes with the transformational innovations under development in the earth resources management sector. Core classes include:

  • EAEE E4160 SOLID ＆ HAZARDOUS WASTE MGMT 
  • EAEE E4200 Introduction to Sustainable Production of Earth Mineral ＆ Metal Resources
  • EAEE E4228 Separation Science and Technology in Sustainable Earth Resources Development