Environmental Engineering
Facilities & Resources:
The Environmental Engineering laboratories are located in the Simons Engineering Research Center in the Foothills Campus and in the Engineering Building on Main Campus. Laboratories include an array of instruments such as a gas chromatograph, UV spectrophotometer, TOC analyzer, zeta-meter, flourometer, 4 ISCO water quality samplers etc., with space for wet chemistry and bench scale experiments at both sites.
The Simons Engineering Research Center contains facilities for hydraulic, hydrologic, ground water and water treatment research. Laboratory space includes a 800 square foot chemistry and microbiology teaching laboratory, 800 square foot graduate research laboratory, 800 square foot analytical instrument labs, a separate glass washing and storage room, and assigned office space for graduate students. The Research Center also has a machine shop that has extensive experience fabricating experimental apparatus. Specific analytical equipment to support research projects include: HPLC/MS system, SPE system, Nitrogen evaporation system, 2 Centrifuges, Charm II Liquid Scintillation Counter, UV Visible Scanning Spectrophotometer w/flow thru cell, Spectrofluorimeter w/flow thru cell, Mass Selective Detector, Dionex ICS 2000 Ion Chromatograph, Organic Carbon Analyzer.
All students and staff have office space equipped with digital telephone lines, Ethernet and wireless connections, and ample storage space for papers and books. They have high-speed personal computers and access to extensive computing capabilities (including both PC and MAC), as well as fax machines, photocopiers, a conference room with built in projectors and teleconferencing capabilities, slide projectors, overhead projectors, and computer projectors.
The Simons Research Center computer lab (25 PC workstations) and “smart room” is also readily available to students and staff on site. The research labs include: The 400 sq ft Environmental Biotechnology Lab (A310) has recently been completely renovated (Spring, 2004) and dedicated solely to molecular and microbiological research. The equipment in this lab includes: Two real-time PCR instruments (a Cepheid SmartCycler and an ABI 7300), a BioRad DCode Mutation Detection System for DGGE, Agarose gel electrophoresis units with power supplies, a pH meter (Orion), an analytical balance (Mettler-Toledo), a UVP BioChemi Imaging system with a 16 bit camera and Labworks software, a BioRad Versfluor fluorometer, freezers and refrigerators for sample storage, and an ABI 310 Genetic Analyzer Capillary Electrophoresis Unit. A Barnstead Diamond Nanopure water purification system is also used exclusively by Dr. Pruden’s students and staff.
The 600 sq ft PCR and Fluorescence Microscopy Lab (A314) at the Simons Research Center is designed to prevent PCR contamination and thus is used solely for setting up PCR reactions, storing non-DNA PCR reagents and samples, and for epi-fluorescence microscopy (which does not involve analysis of naked DNA). The equipment in this laboratory includes: a PCR workstation with UV lamp (AirClean Systems), an ultralow -80 freezer (VWR), a -20ºC freezer, a Nikon 50i Epifluorescent Microscope with 10X, 20X, 40X, and 100X objectives, and a hybridization oven (Robbins Scientific).
The 100 sq ft RNA Lab (A317) is dedicated to RNA experiments only, in order to avoid contamination of experiments with RNAse. This lab includes: a table-top refrigerated centrifuge (Sorvall), an electrophoresis unit with power supply, an analytical balance (Ohaus), a dry-bath incubator (IsoTemp), a vortex mixer (Fisher), and an ISO Class 5 vertical clean bench with UV lamp (Labconco).
The 900 sq ft Environmental Microbiology Lab (B304) is equipped for all general microbiology experiments, including DNA extraction, and PCR thermal cycling. Equipment in this lab includes a heated shaking incubator (VWR), a water bath (Fisher), two thermal cyclers (Eppendorf Mastercycler and a BioRad MyCycler), a laminar flow hood (Envirco), an autoclave (Thermoline Model M), 5 upright refrigerator/freezers, several vortex mixers, a microcentrifuge (Beckman), a centrifuge (Beckman), a bead-beater (BioSpec Products), and ample bench-top space for experimentation.