Ryan Hearty

My dissertation is about the relationship between water pollution and the field of environmental engineering in the United States, focusing on the 1960s and 1970s, a period of major transformations in environmental knowledge, policy, and activism. I am interested in how environmental engineers sustained their relatively small field within a broader system of pollution experts. This project helps scholars understand how engineers responded to these transformations and how their practices compared with those of other pollution experts, such as biologists. I focus on four engineering practices: monitoring rivers and water treatment plants using sensor networks; modeling polluted rivers and plant processes; consulting with governments, city councils, and health agencies on projects; and developing standards and criteria for water quality. The project offers a new perspective on what it meant to “engineer” the environment in the second half of the twentieth century.