Studying and Reversing the Damaging Effects of Pollution and Acid Rain With Charles Driscoll

Civil and environmental engineering professor Charles Driscoll⁠ has always been interested in ways to protect our environment and natural resources, so he set about studying the large-scale effects of pollutants on the natural environment, earning a civil engineering degree from the University of Maine and both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in environmental engineering from Cornell University. Driscoll, one of the nation’s leading experts on pollution research, developed a series of predictive environmental models that explore how chemicals in soil, water and vegetation change when exposed to air pollutants. He has devised strategies to reverse the damaging effects of acid rain and mercury contamination in lakes, including leading efforts to successfully restore nearby Onondaga Lake—once one of the most polluted lakes in the country—after developing new methods of testing for mercury. On this episode, Driscoll discusses the magnitude of his research, how he uses models to both understand the disturbances and lead restoration efforts and reflects on some of his successful remediations.