Environmental engineers work to provide communities with safe drinking water, pollution control, and hazardous waste cleanup, removal and site remediation.

Colorado State’s Environmental Engineering program was ranked 4th nationally and 7th in the world in a June 2016 release by the Academic Ranking of World Universities.

Stanford, UC-Berkeley, and Harvard were the only American universities to be ranked higher CSU in the Environmental Science and Engineering category.

The program, which falls under the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, focuses on solving issues related to water and air quality, waste cleanup and control and pollution reduction. The curriculum places a heavy emphasis on biological and natural sciences, in addition to standard engineering and math courses.

The rankings were conducted by the Chinese consulting firm Shanghia Rankings and based on third party sources. Priorities were placed on the impact, productivity and quality of a program’s research, as well as any academic awards and recognitions the program has received. The international influence and collaborative efforts of the university’s program were also taken into account.

CSU’s recent and ongoing international research in the department includes the assessment of atoll groundwater in the South Pacific, mud and debris flow from natural disasters in Venezuela, and the study of how wooden building respond to earthquakes in Kobe, Japan.

Tessa Hanson, a graduate student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering program, believes that both in-depth classroom study and practical research drive the program’s excellence.

“I think the strength of the program is due in part to the challenging and vigorous core classes that the students take their first and second years, and the caliber of research that the professors are conducting,” Hanson said.

Collegian Reporter Cody Moore can be reached at news@collegian.com.