ESE's Environmental Engineering now 5th in 2005 U.S. News & World Report rankings

April 07, 2004

The Environmental Engineering specialty within the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering (ESE) in the School of Public Health is ranked fifth in the nation in the newly released U.S. News and World Report 2005 edition of “America’s Best Graduate Schools.” In gathering the data to rank schools in the category of Engineering Specialties, Environmental/Environmental Health, US News worked in conjunction with the American Society for Engineering Education, and intends to conduct the rankings survey annually.Also the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering (ESE) program in Environmental Policy and Management was ranked 10th in the U.S. News and World Report 2005 rankings in the specialty categories under public affairs programs. For more information you can access the School of Public Health’s press release, or refer to the U.S. News and World Report Web site.The Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering is an extremely diverse department for which no single specialty ranking is indicative of the quality of the entire department. However, one important and large subset of the Department is environmental engineering. Using a new and more sophisticated ranking methodology than in past rankings, ESE’s Environmental Engineering program is in a tie for 5th in this category in the recently released 2005 rankings. This high ranking is especially meaningful because about 200 such programs exist in the U.S. According to Professor Casey Miller, Chair, of ESE: “We are extremely proud of our Environmental Engineering program. We believe this recent ranking and our rapid trajectory upward is indicative of the accomplishments of our outstanding faculty, and has been enabled by the generous support of ESE by the School, University, and the State of North Carolina. This ranking is especially impressive because UNC Chapel Hill does not have a School of Engineering. However, given the historical and continuing role of environmental science and engineering in protecting and improving public health, ESE’s home in the School of Public Health, which itself is ranked 2nd by U.S News and World Report, is an optimal location to carry out the mission of the entire Department–and the engineering program is an important and especially strong component of ESE.”

You can learn more about the history and exceptional strength and breadth of ESE by exploring the ESE Web site.

For further information please contact Rebecca Riggsbee Lloyd either by phone at 919.966.4175 or by email at Rebecca_Lloyd@unc.edu