Michael Aitken to chair Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering

Michael D. Aitken

The University of North Carolina Board of Trustees has approved the appointment of Michael D. Aitken, PhD as chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering in the School of Public Health. Aitken’s appointment will be effective September 1, 2006.

Aitken, professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering and director of the department’s Environmental Engineering Program, received his doctorate in civil engineering from the University of Notre Dame in 1988. After having joined the School’s faculty as an instructor in 1987, Aitken became assistant professor in 1988, associate professor in 1995 and professor in 2000. Prior to his academic career, he worked as a consulting environmental engineer at Malcolm Pirnie, a major international environmental engineering company.

Dean Barbara K. Rimer commended Aitken for the wealth of experience he brings to his role as chair. “Dr. Aitken’s work as a consultant not only will continue to inform his own research but will allow him also to provide practical advice to graduate students,” she said. “He has the academic excellence, vision and interpersonal skills to provide effective leadership for this internationally recognized academic program with a long history of excellence.”

Ivan Rusyn, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the department, agrees. “I am very pleased to learn that Professor Aitken accepted the position of chair,” Rusyn said, “and I am confident that he will be welcomed by all faculty, staff and students. He is a person who will best preserve the strengths of this outstanding department and further the interdisciplinary nature of our academic and research mission.”

The UNC School of Public Health’s Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering Department is ranked the nation’s seventh best graduate program for environmental/environmental health by U.S. News & World Report magazine for its 2007 edition of “American’s Best Graduate Schools.”

Aitken is excited about the opportunity to help the department move into the future. “Our challenge,” he said, “will be to evolve while sustaining our reputation for excellence.” Praising the varied interests of the faculty and student body, he noted that “multi-disciplinarity is our strength. It will help the department adapt as funding priorities shift and, as new research challenges and opportunities emerge, it will allow us to make unique contributions to knowledge and to society. It also will help prepare our graduates for a more complex world. I look forward to exploring new ways of engaging students in fulfilling our research and education missions.”

Donald L. Fox, PhD, has served as interim chair of the department since Cass T. (Casey) Miller, PhD, stepped down as chair July 31, 2005. Fox will continue on the faculty and resume the position of associate chair, which he previously had held under Miller.