Assessing Student Writing Competencies in Environmental Engineering Courses

Over the past ten years, Ben’s work in environmental engineering has focused on anaerobic biotechnologies. His projects have included studying the effects of anaerobic digester configuration on methane production rates, examining digestion of secondary residuals from brewery wastewater to enhance bioenergy generation, investigating the relationship between microbial community structure and digester performance, and co-digestion of solid wastes. He received his Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Marquette University (2012) and his B.S. and M.S. in Civil Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis (2006). The desire join the faculty at Platteville can best be summed up in the word accompany—Ben feels quite blessed to be able to accompany students as they become engineers. His work with the Milwaukee Water Council oversaw the founding of student chapters, and he has been involved with Engineers Without Borders. He began teaching in the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Wisconsin – Platteville in the fall of 2012. When he is not working on engineering-related work, he enjoys being outside, especially with his two little girls and wife or running.