Environmental Science

Environmental science and engineering are young professions compared to many other disciplines in the physical and natural sciences and engineering. In a span of just a few decades, advances and new environmental applications of science, engineering, and their associated technologies have coalesced into a whole new way to see the world. Science is the explanation of the physical world, while engineering encompasses applications of science to achieve results. Thus, what we have learned about the environment by trial and error has incrementally grown into what is now standard practice of environmental science and engineering. This heuristically attained knowledge has come at a great cost in terms of the loss of lives and diseases associated with mistakes, poor decisions (at least in retrospect), and the lack of appreciation of environmental effects.