Civil and Environmental Engineering Professors
Receive Grant from Department of Environmental Protection

Dr. Richard Carbonaro, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Dr. Robert Sharp, professor of civil and environmental engineering, have received a $145,000 research grant from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP) to study manganese deposits in aquifier systems. The 18-month study will support up to two graduate research assistants and one undergraduate research assistant. For more information on the NYCDEP, click Here.

Carbonaro recently published two papers: “Interaction of Carboxylate-Containing Chelating Agents with Amorphous Chromium Hydroxide: Adsorption and Dissolution” in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta; and “Abiotic Reduction of Nitroaromatic Contaminants by Iron (II) Complexes with Organothiol Ligands” in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

Sharp authored the invited paper “Influence of Microbial Biofilms on Reactive Transport in Porous Media,” which he presented at the 236th annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in Philadelphia this past August. The paper was co-authored by Drs. Robin Gerlach and Al Cunningham from the Center of Biofilm Engineering at Montana State University.

In addition, Sharp is the co-author of “Method Development for Determining the Biodegradability of Dissolved Organic Nitrogen in the Stamford WPCA Effluent,” which was presented by Jose Porro ’07 at the 2008 Water Environment Federation Technical Exposition and Conference in Chicago from Oct. 18-22.

The paper details the initial findings of a $150,000 research project funded by Stamford WPCA, Hazen and Sawyer Engineers and the Donald O’Connor Endowed Fellowship. Co-authors on the paper include Natalie Dubanowitz ’09, O’Connor Fellowship recipient and graduate research assistant in environmental engineering, and Jeanette Brown, executive director of Stamford WPCF. Porro is currently a project engineer at Malcolm Pirnie in New York.