Educating the Next Generation of Environmental Chemists New undergraduate programs are helping to meet the need for a more highly skilled work force. S C O T T A.
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ombine rigorous training in traditional chemistry with the ability to apply that knowledge to environmental problems and you have a set of skills that is increasingly in demand by industry, government, and laboratories (i). To help meet this need for environmental chemists, the American Chemical Society's Committee on Professional Training last year established criteria for the approval of undergraduate degree programs in environmental chemistry. The first program to be approved was announced last month. A few undergraduate programs in environmental chemistry have sprung up during the past several years. The development of one such program at California State University-Fulleiton (CSUF) illustrates how the needs of the local environmental community help to shape such programs and ensure their support in a time of shrinking academic budgets. The demand for well-trained environmental chemists is loud and clear in Orange County, the center of southern California's urban-industrial complex and home to CSUF's 20,000-student campus, the largest four-year institution in the county. California leads the nation in environmental industry employment and revenue, with future growth predicted (2). There are 20 environmental testing labs in the immediate area. Although environmental programs are offered at local two- and four-year institutions, these programs have an emphasis in management, social science, technician training, or civil engineering. What the area lacked was a program that would offer a strong basic science background along with environmental training. Over the past five years, CSUF's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has been encouraged by local industry, companies, and laboratories— including Chevron, Unocal, Beckman, Hewlett Packard, Perkin Elmer, Woodward-Clyde Consulting, Fullerton Environmental Labs, the Air Quality Management District, and the Municipal Water District—to de1 3 0 A • VOL. 29, NO. 3, 1995 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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velop a program that would meet the demand for environmental chemists. The president of a local environmental laboratory told us that his company needed chemistry graduates who knew how to apply their knowledge to environmental problems. We also heard from many in industry that expanding the curriculum to include environmental topics should not be done at the expense of the fundamental chemistry core. By contacting local companies, we learned that graduating science students frequently lack an understanding of environmental science, sampling procedures, and statistics. Consequently, many companies have had to retrain science graduates, at a significant cost of time and money, to fill environmental positions such as laboratory technician, analyst, and site engineer. Howard Guyer, director of the two-year Environmental Hazardous Materials Technology program offered at 29 of California's community colleges, informed us that each year some of the students from these programs seek upper level training at four-year institutions to strengthen their background. We were also encouraged by our alumni working at local environmental laboratories, bioremediation companies, government laboratories, and petroleum research companies, who were enthusiastic about returning to CSUF to receive environmental training. Directors of local industry and laboratories told us they were eager to send their employees for such training and to hire our graduates. From our conversations with these companies it was clear that an environmental chemistry program would enhance the educational experience of our students and make them more competitive in the job market. In the fall of 1991 the department began to develop its environmental chemistry program. CSUF has had a long-standing environmental studies graduate program. In developing an environmental emphasis for undergraduate chemistry and biochemistry majors, we were constrained by several factors. 0013-936X/95/0929-130AS09.00/0 © 1995 American Chemical Society
Because of decreased state funding, we could not hire new faculty or add many new courses. Of the nine courses in our program, three were already part of the curriculum and two had been taught as special topics courses. Only four new courses were needed to provide sufficient training in environmental chemistry and analytical methods. The CSUF program provides course work in analytical methods and in applying fundamental chemistry to environmental problems. The environmental chemistry emphasis includes 12 units of upper division course work. Two semesters of organic chem istry and one semester of quantitative analysis are prerequisites. The requirements begin with a team-taught introductory course on how the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphère are chemically interconnected. Students then take three lecture courses in different areas of environmental chemistry that focus on how to apply fundamental chemistry and biochemistry principles to real-world situations. The applied nature of these courses is illustrated by a question from a take-home exam: "You are a hazardous materials specialist dismantling a plastics manufacturing plant. The following materials are found in a metal storage cabinet covered with rust from a leaking overhead fire sprinkler: titanium tetrachloride, butyllithium, styrene. . . . What are the hazards you must anticipate in cleaning up this area?" Three five-week environmentally oriented instrumental analysis modules also are required. Examples of our labs include determination of radon in air, atomic absorption (AA) of trace metals in cereal, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of organics in water. In addition to the 12 units of course work, students are encouraged to complete their senior research requirement (two-four units) with an environmentally oriented project either under the direction of one of our faculty, as interns at the campus Environmental Health and Safety office, local companies, or government laboratories. Although the minimum requirement is one to two semesters of research, many students spend considerably more time developing their projects, taking samples, making analytical measurements, and analyzing data. Examples of research projects undertaken in the past two years include the chemical characterization of petroleum refinery bottoms from the nearby McColl Superfund site, the kinetics of chlorine atom reactions with organics in the troposphere, and the reduction of mixed waste from liquid scintillation cocktails. The work at the Superfund site, located a few miles from campus on the edge of a residential neighborhood, was funded through the homeowners' association. Several research projects involve collaboration with local companies, including the chemical evaluation of a commercial chlorine dioxide generator for water purification. Six of the 20 faculty in our department teach the nine environmental chemistry courses. Each faculty member teaches only his or her own specialty so that we are able to give students the latest and most complete information. The faculty strongly believes that the environmental chemistry program should maintain the rig-
Senior Gwen Boone and research advisor Scott Hewitt discuss the results of an FT-IR analysis of a smog-forming reaction as part of a research project in California State University- Fullerton's environmental chemistry program.
orous standards of the department yet not place an additional burden on the B.S. chemists, who are required to take 85 units of science and mathematics. Consequently, for B.S. chemistry majors, the environmental chemistry courses fulfill the upper division science elective and career breadth requirements. For B.A. chemistry and B.S. biochemistry majors, who have fewer required courses, the environmental chemistry emphasis increases their upper division science électives by six-nine units. The statistics course required for this emphasis is substituted for a computer course requirement. Compared with the minimum requirements established for ACS certification, the CSUF program is relatively rigorous. Training in traditional chemistry plus six units of environmentally related science and two units of advanced environmental chemistry are required for certification. The CSUF program requires 12 units of advanced environmental chemistry and two-four units of environmental chemistry research. The first course in the environmental chemistry emphasis was offered in the fall of 1992. The program, now in its third year, has been enthusiastically received. Twenty-five students enrolled in the first course. Enrollments have varied from five to 25 students per class with an average enrollment of 14 students per class. Courses are taught from 4 to 8 p.m. to allow those with full-time jobs to attend. Compared with our other upper division courses, these classes are moderately to heavily filled. Students are about equally divided between undergraduates and master's degree candidates; most have been taking individual courses to meet their needs rather than taking the entire 12-unit emphasis. The first two students to complete the undergraduate emphasis in environmental chemistry graduated last spring and are now in graduate school. Because of our strained budget, we have looked to external sources for help in funding the environmental chemistry program. We have received four National Science Foundation (NSF) Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement equipment grants for gas VOL. 29, NO. 3, 1995 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY • 1 3 1 A
Undergraduate environmental chemistry at California State University—Fullerton Required lecture courses Introduction to Environmental Chemistry. Introduction to water, air, and soil chemistry; analytical methods; types of hazards; regulations; EPA protocols; chemical compatibility and storage; interaction between chemicals and the environment; assessment of pollution effects and selected case histories (3 h/week). Statistics Applied to Natural Sciences. Introduction to the theory of statistics and statistical applications with an emphasis on data analysis techniques (3 h/week). Lecture courses (3 required) Chemistry of Hazardous Materials. In-depth examination of hazardous chemicals; organics and inorganic air- and moisturesensitive compounds; reactive metals; chemical reactivity patterns; chemical compatibilities; storage and handling; methods of disposal and waste containment; federal and local regulations; case histories (2 h/week). Atmospheric Chemistry. Chemistry and photochemistry of the troposphere and stratosphere, both natural and polluted; fundamental reaction kinetics and mechanisms; monitoring techniques; smog chamber, field, and modeling studies (2 h/week). Water Chemistry. Principal characteristics of fresh water and
seawater; chemical and biological methods of treatment for domestic water supplies and sewage; major classes of water pollutants, their origins, chemical transformations, effects on the environment, and fate; methods for analysis and removal (2 h/week). Environmental Biochemistry. Effects of agricultural, industrial, and mechanical practices on the composition, metabolism, and health of soil, plants, animals, and humans, from a biochemical perspective; mechanism of action and degradation of common agricultural chemicals and industrial pollutants (2 h/week). Instrumental analysis modules (3 required) Optical Spectroscopy. Experiments include atomic absorption and emission spectrophotometry of trace metals in cereal and tree leaves (five weeks, lecture and lab). Separations. Experiments include the determination of caffeine in beverages using EPA high-performance liquid chromatography methods (five weeks, lecture and lab). Radiochemical Methods. Experiments include the determination of radon in air (five weeks, lecture and lab). Mass Spectrometry. Experiments include the determination of organic compounds in drinking water by gas chromatography/ mass spectrometry (five weeks, lecture and lab).
chromatography/mass selective detection (GC/ MSD), AA, Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, and scintillation counting instruments, and an equipment grant from Hewlett Packard for a second GC-MSD device. Rockwell International also has donated a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer. Our ability to obtain external funding has clearly been enhanced by the addition of the environmental chemistry program. For example, before we developed the program, our GC/MSD grant proposal was not funded. After including environmental chemistry in the grant proposal, we had two GC/MSD grants funded. In total, eight of 10 grants related to this program have been funded. New programs have developed around our environmental chemistry emphasis. We received funding for two summer programs, one for high school students and one to sensitize students and faculty to the ethical and environmental issues in science. These special programs have been developed simultaneously with our undergraduate emphasis in environmental chemistry to provide a more comprehensive outreach to our community. The Environmental Management Precollege Analytical Chemistry Program, cosponsored by the Department of Energy and the Associated Western Universities, permits 24 high school students to take a college-level environmentally oriented quantitative analysis lecture-laboratory course, which includes trips to local companies and laboratories. The "Science, Ethics, and the Environment" summer seminar series was sponsored through the NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates: Ethics and Values Studies Program. Between 70 and 90 students and faculty attended the seminars, which culminated in a roundtable discussion concerning the ethical and environmental issues related to their research projects: safety considerations, waste generation, truthfulness in data collection and analysis, and biotechnology issues. Our immediate efforts are focused on applying for 1 3 2 A • VOL. 29, NO. 3, 1995 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
approval for the undergraduate program, developing an M.S. degree concentration in environmental chemistry, pursuing more funding, advertising off campus, and developing stronger ties with industry and local environmental laboratories. We are not yet aware of any employees from industry who have returned to receive environmental chemistry training. However, this is not surprising because we have not yet made an effort to advertise the program off campus. Although our undergraduate environmental chemistry emphasis is still young, we feel that we have built a solid and successful program. Schools from across the country and from as far away as the United Kingdom and Iran have contacted us for details, and students have given the program high marks. Here are two comments from anonymous student surveys: "Environmental courses are very informative and wonderfully related to the real thing. Should be at least one [course] mandatory for BA. and B.S. degrees." "Chemistry applied to social concerns, how refreshing!... It is wonderful to finally have the education to allow us to be critical of the issues."
Acknowledgments Thanks to Richard Deming, Barbara Finlayson-Pitts, Gene Hiegel, Maria Linder, Glenn Nagel, Harold Rogers, Bruce Weber, Van Willis, and ]ohn Elliot, who made this program possible; the NSF and Hewlett Packard for equipment grants; Rockwell for equipment donation; and NSF, DOE, and the Associated Western Universities for funding our summer programs.
References (1) Illman, D. Chem. Eng. News, April 4, 1994, p. 34. (2) Rowe, J. The Orange County Register, Morning Edition, July 24, 1994, p. KOI.
Scott A. Hewitt is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at California State University-Fullerton and co-director of the environmental chemistry program.
