Rood receives Environmental Educator Award

The Air & Waste Management Association has chosen Mark J. Rood, the Ivan Racheff Professor of Environmental Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, as the 2010 recipient of their Lyman A. Ripperton Environmental Educator Award.

Established in 1980, the award recognizes distinguished achievement by an educator in some field of air pollution control.  It is awarded to an individual who, “by precept and example, has inspired students to achieve excellence in all their professional and social endeavors. It recognizes the abilities that only a few in the education profession possess—to be able to teach with rigor, humor, humility, and pride.”

Rood teaches on-campus and online environmental engineering courses, including air-quality engineering courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He specializes in the use of physical and chemical principles to characterize the optical and chemical properties of ambient aerosols related to opacity, visibility, and climate change. He also pioneers the development of effective methods and materials to separate hazardous materials from gas streams. Rood has been a Fellow of the Air & Waste Management Association since 2008.

The Air & Waste Management Association is a nonprofit, nonpartisan professional organization that enhances knowledge and expertise by providing a neutral forum for information exchange, professional development, networking opportunities, public education, and outreach to more than 8,000 environmental professionals in 65 countries.

Lyman A. Ripperton (1921-1978) was a practitioner in education and research for the control of air pollution. His career included working in the Los Angeles County Air Pollution Control District and a teaching and research assignment in the Department of Environmental Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he established the program in air pollution education. The award will be presented at the organization’s 103rd Annual Conference & Exhibition on June 24 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
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Contact: Mark J. Rood, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 217/333-6963.

Writer: Celeste Arbogast Bragorgos, director of communications, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 217/333-6955.

If you have any questions about the College of Engineering, or other story ideas, contact Rick Kubetz, Engineering Communications Office, 217/244-7716, editor.