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Environmental Engineer
Develops solutions for environmental problems — water treatment, pollution control, waste management.
Did you know?
Engineers designed the system that recycles about 98% of the water on the International Space Station, including astronauts' sweat and urine.
How subjects help
- Chemistry: Test river water for pollutants and design ways to remove them safely.
- Biology: Use helpful bacteria to break down sewage and waste in water treatment plants.
- Mathematics: Calculate how much water a treatment plant can clean each day for a growing town.
- Environmental Science: Measure how a new factory or road will affect nearby air, soil and wildlife.
A famous name
Ellen Swallow Richards: First woman to study at MIT; she tested Massachusetts' water and pioneered sanitary engineering.
Try it yourself: Survey the litter on your street
- With an adult, choose a short stretch to survey, such as from your door to the corner or one side of a park path. Measure it in footsteps and write the number down.
- Make a tally chart with columns such as plastic bottles, cans, sweet and crisp wrappers, paper and "other".
- Walk slowly and tally every piece of litter you can see, without touching any of it.
- Add up each column. What was most common, and where do you think it came from? Repeat the same stretch next week to see if it changes.
Environmental scientists survey litter in the same measured area using fixed categories, so results from thousands of places can be compared and used to push for changes such as bottle return schemes.
Adapted from Keep Scotland Beautiful: Community Litter Hub: data collection.
Also try: Clean up a mini oil spill.
Known for it in
Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, USA, Sweden