Educating Future Environmental Health Professionals

Future environmental health problems will require a new generation of educated and trained professionals. Efforts to enhance the environmental public health workforce have been promoted by several organizations. While progress has been measured by these organizations, many environmental health academic programs are experiencing budget reductions and lower enrollments. One of the reasons for this trend is the so-called higher education crisis. We argue that training is not equivalent to education in the environmental health sciences, albeit the two terms are often used interchangeably. Organizations involved with the education, training, and credentialing of environmental health professionals must work together to ensure the viability and effectiveness of environmental health academic programs

Structure-Based Predictive model for Coal Char Combustion.

During the second quarter of this project, progress was made on both major technical tasks. Three parallel efforts were initiated on the modeling of carbon structural evolution. Structural ordering during carbonization was studied by a numerical simulation scheme proposed by Alan Kerstein involving molecular weight growth and rotational mobility. Work was also initiated to adapt a model of carbonaceous mesophase formation, originally developed under parallel NSF funding, to the prediction of coke texture. This latter work makes use of the FG-DVC model of coal pyrolysis developed by Advanced Fuel Research to specify the pool of aromatic clusters that participate in the order/disorder transition. Boston University has initiated molecular dynamics simulations of carbonization processes and Ohio State has begun theoretical treatment of surface reactions. Experimental work has also begun on model compound studies at Brown and on pilot-scale combustion systems with widely varying flame types at OSE. The work on mobility / growth models shows great promise and is discussed in detail in the body of the report

Structure-Based Predictive model for Coal Char Combustion.

The first quarter of this project was used to carry out a detailed planning process to coordinate the various aspects of this collaborative effort. A workshop was held at Brown University on December 4, 1996, attended by all project participants and key visitors, in which presentations were given by the principal investigators on their respective subtasks. The planning process culminated in the completion of a comprehensive document submitted to DOE / FETC under separate cover. Following the planning exercise, research work was initiated and will be continued in the second project quarter