Mike Marsolek, PhD, PE

Curriculum Vitae

Teaching and Research Interests

Dr. Marsolek teaches multiple Environmental Engineering courses in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Program, including Environmental Engineering Chemistry, Principles of Environmental Engineering, and Water and Wastewater Engineering, among others.

Dr. Marsolek's research focuses on small-scale wastewater treatment in the developing world and algal biofuels. Current projects in the former track include wastewater treatment design and assessment for small-holder coffee farms near Matagalpa, Nicaragua, and the Mount Everest Biogas Project (www.mteverestbiogasproject.org), working to install an anaerobic digester at 15,000 feet to treat human solid waste from climbers. In the latter track Dr. Marsolek's work includes thermal pretreatment for enhanced digestion of algal biomass, thermal pretreatment for enhanced digestion of lipid-extracted algal by-product, and novel bioreactor technologies for algae cultivation.

Biography

Dr. Marsolek received B.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering and in Chemistry from the University of Minnesota in 1999. He earned a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University in 2005, specializing in combined chemical/biological wastewater treatment.