CEE Hosts Annual Cochrane Fellows Luncheon
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering hosted its annual Cochrane Fellows Luncheon to honor founder Jack Cochrane and highlight the research of current PhD students in environmental engineering supported by this prestigious fellowship.
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering hosted its annual Cochrane Fellows Luncheon to discuss the work of the fellowship’s faculty and students as well as celebrate the generous contribution of fellowship founder and former department chair and professor Jack Cochrane. In its ninth year, the Cochrane Fellowship is awarded to outstanding PhD students in environmental engineering to support their study at Northeastern. Below is a review of current Fellow’s active research activities, supported in part by their Cochrane Fellowships.
Ben Eck, PhD’25, civil engineering
PhD student Ben Eck is advised by Associate Professor Amy Mueller. His research focuses on eutrophication, and ways to measure nitrate in all different kinds of water systems. Eck is currently in Boise, Idaho completing a yearlong study of nitrogen export from rain onto snow, which is expected to increase with climate change.
Emma Walter, PhD’29, civil and environmental engineering
Working in Associate Professor Matthew Eckelman’s lab, Emma Walter is modeling the impact from industrial and urban emissions. She is currently working on a policy analysis of Massachusetts’ Clean Energy Plan, its subsidies, and other potential impacts.
Kyla Drewry, PhD’25, civil and environmental engineering
In her third year at Assistant Professor Kelsey Pieper’s lab, Kyla Drewry studies private well water quality and examines microbial contamination following flooding events. She recently led a sampling campaign in August 2024 to test 250 private wells. Following Hurricane Helene, she worked with community partners on the ground in North Carolina to understand changes to their well water.
Amanda Thomas, PhD’29, civil and environmental engineering
Working with Professor Akram Alshawabkeh, Amanda Thomas is using coffee grounds to develop filters for removing toxins. She is studying if sargassum can also be processed into a filtering biomaterial. Eventually, they aim to test this material’s ability to remove phthalates from ground water and soils in Puerto Rico.
Melanie Marino. PhD’28, civil and environmental engineering
Melanie Marino works with Associate Professor Matthew Eckelman, studying healthcare sector sustainability and the Commonwealth Fund, which releases an annual scorecard on access and quality of care. The team is working to add an environmental component to scorecard, and plan to issue a brief on the topic during New York Climate Week.
Tiffany Tang, PhD’27, civil and environmental engineering
A student in her third year working in the Pieper Lab, Tiffany Tang is wrapping up a project studying data sets on private wells in Wade County, North Carolina. She is investigating how accurate the existing data sets are. Additionally, she is looking into bioproducts created when drinking water treated with Chlorine is mixed with drinking water from sources treated using other methods or chemicals.
Begum Erdincler, PhD’25, civil engineering
Working with Associate Professor Philip Larese-Casanova, Begum Erdincler studies explosives in wastewater, looking into how engineers can extract nitrogen and use it as fertilizer.
Elizabeth Bartuska, PhD’26, civil engineering
Beth Bartuska is combining well testing data from Assistant Professor Kelsey Pieper’s lab with the satellite data from COE Distinguished Professor Ed Beighley’s group to discover which factors are most likely to lead to e-coli contamination. She hopes to help policy makers understand rainfall events, changes to local watersheds, and how this contributes to flooding and well contamination.