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Asked by Insha to Keegan on 3 May 2016.
Question: In order to become an environmental engineer did you get a bachelors degree in engineering?
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Keegan Cooke answered on 3 May 2016:
Great question. I got my bachelors in Biophysics, which is just a mash up of biology and physics. In the sciences, it is fairly easy (and is often encouraged) to mix up different disciplines because a lot of innovation happens when you do that.
Comments
Clay commented on :
Though I often work in environmental science, I am not an environmental engineer. I took a soil engineering class, but my doctorate is in soils, my master’s in agronomy, and my bachelor’s in agriculture.
But since I had 5 college majors before getting my bachelor’s I took a lot of introductory science courses, and several follow-up courses: botany, zoology, physics (2 courses), chemistry (2 courses), organic chemistry, animal science, plant science, and historical geology, and other more advanced animal science and plant science classes.
Then on my masters and PhD, I took biochemistry (2 courses), physical chemistry, soil chemistry, soil fertility, world climates, microclimatology/agroclimatology, soil physics (2 courses), and soil engineering.
I also took a lot of math courses: college algebra, trigonometry, calculus (1 course on my bachelor’s, 2 on my master’s, and 1 on my PhD), and on my PhD differential equations and partial differential equations.
Engineers take the same math courses, and physics, but not most of the other sciences.
Having all these science classes upon which to draw helps me understand a lot of science connections that some people often miss. I also had some courses in economics that help me make even more connections. This is especially important when working with farmers because they must make a profit in order to stay in business.