Expert: Florence M Rollwagen - 7/28/2009

Question
QUESTION: does biology help in learning how to clean water, air?  i cant decide between molecular biology, and environmental engineering.  what would be a good degree to learn to clean water, air, hazardous waste, as well as destroy diseases?

ANSWER: A good undergraduate degree in environmental biology with emphasis on biochemistry will certainly help you decide what career to pursue.  When you say "destroy diseases" do you mean get rid of vectors like mosquitoes, or do you mean use bioengineering to get rid of the actual bacteria/parasites?  If you're leaning toward the bacteria end of the spectrum, go for microbiology.

Hope this helps.

FM Rollwagen, PhD

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: sorry for the misunderstanding.  when i say destroy diseases i mean getting rid of bacteria/parasites.  what would a degree in environmental engineering do in this area?

ANSWER: Sorry again, what does "getting rid of" mean?  Do you want to eradicate all bacteria?  (not a good idea)

Do you want to get rid of parasites?  Usually this means an understanding in the life cycle of the parasite and interrupting one or more of its vectors (carriers).

Environmental engineering will include chemical/radioactive disposal as well as infectious agents.  From your questions, I'm guessing that a degree in environmental microbiology is what you want.

Hope this helps.

FM Rollwagen, PhD

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: hello,

when i say getting rid of i guess i mean killing just the bad stuff in order to clean, purify, air, land, water, etc.  bacteria, disease, etc that pollute water, and air.

what im really looking forward to is owning a company in which i can provide the service of water and air purification, as well as hazardous waste disposal and clean-up.  i want to build my own facilites in order to provide these services.  in so many words, i want a company that provides the services of cleaning water, air, hazardous waste removal/disposal, recycling of plastics, metals, etc., for remanufacture and reselling to companies

thanks for your time

Answer
It's possible to get an undergraduate degree in environmental studies which will prepare you for such a career.  You should probably get some business courses as well.

I checked the University of Maryland and found some programs:
http://www.ensp.umd.edu/
http://www.enst.umd.edu/

I'm sure your state university has similar programs.

You might also look into an internship at the EPA for more experience:
http://www.epa.gov/

Hope this helps!

FM Rollwagen, PhD