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Americans now spend 18 hours indoors for every hour spent outdoors. Indoor pollution adversely affects the health of the American public, worker productivity, electrical and mechanical equipment, and cultural artifacts. Despite the importance of the indoor environment, there are no academic institutional leaders in indoor environmental science and engineering. … more »

Americans now spend 18 hours indoors for every hour spent outdoors. Indoor pollution adversely affects the health of the American public, worker productivity, electrical and mechanical equipment, and cultural artifacts. Despite the importance of the indoor environment, there are no academic institutional leaders in indoor environmental science and engineering.

This Integrative Graduate Education and Training (IGERT) award supports the establishment of a unique interdisciplinary graduate training program in Indoor Environmental Science and Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin (UT). The goal of this IGERT program, a collaborative effort involving six colleges/schools at UT, is to educate a pioneering generation of research leaders in the field of indoor environmental science and engineering, and to provide them with the skills necessary to address the human dimension of the indoor environment. They will gain expertise through research in one or more inter-connected areas, including: outdoor-to-indoor transport of pollutants, sources of indoor pollution, indoor pollutant transformations and control systems, and exposure of building occupants and sensitive materials to indoor pollutants.

In addition to novel research experiences, IGERT trainees will be educated through an interdisciplinary graduate curriculum, a professional development course that includes student presentations and discussions of scientific ethics, internships at national institutes/research labs, participation in an annual symposium, and public outreach efforts. This IGERT program will address the sources, impacts, and control of indoor pollutants and will develop leaders who can solve indoor environmental problems within an interdisciplinary framework, and who can communicate effectively with regulators and the public.

IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries. « less