AEESP
omeone once remarked that an environmental engineering colleague of mine was not a Areal microbiologist." I found this amazing as I personally considered my colleague to be a profoundly insightful microbiologist--but the fact remained that his BS degree stated engineer, and not scientist.  On the other hand, I have often heard many engineers remark that the work of some environmental engineers is "not real engineering," or more specifically, not real "civil engineering."  At an oceanographic sciences meeting many years ago, I had a similar experience.  I found myself one day trying to avoid eye contact in an elevator when other meeting attendees that I did not know, got on the elevator. You see, both "Arizona" and "Engineering" appeared on my name tag,  and I could almost see the question forming, "Why is this person here?"  Of course, I was not considered at these meetings to be a "real oceanographer," an opinion that would not change no matter how many research cruises I went on or how many papers I published in "real journals" such as Limnology and Oceanography and Deep Sea Research. Perhaps this categorization was just, as I described myself both then and now simply as an Environmental Engineer with a "wide range of interests."
The debate about whether engineers are real scientists, and whether scientists should be allowed to join engineering departments is an old one in our profession.  The fact remains that there have almost always been public health scientists and microbiologists on the Sanitary and Environmental Engineering faculty. This need to have scientists join with engineers, and to break down barriers in categorizing a person as one or the other, is a defining and inherent aspect of our profession.
I am therefore pleased to report that, pending confirmation by the Board of Directors at our annual fall Board meeting, our organization will henceforth be known as the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP). This name change reflects the membership qualifications in our bylaws that membership is restricted to full time faculty or instructors "in environmental engineering or related fields."  The name change was not, however, a unanimous decision as it only narrowly passed the required two-thirds vote.  I personally do not believe that there will be any mad rush for thousands of scientists to join our organization and change its nature.  Instead, I hope the name change will primarily demonstrate what has always been true:  the organization embraces both environmental engineers and scientists. Perhaps for the first time, this name change will convince "scientists" working in engineering departments, or "engineers" in science departments, that all are equal members of our interdisciplinary organization.
The report from the Environmental Engineering Frontiers Workshop, mentioned in the last newsletter, is now being published, and should be mailed to all AEEP members in September of this year. The Frontiers Workshop group recognized that collaboration of environmental scientists and engineers was critical for solving environmental problems that face the world in the coming decades, and called for an even greater collaboration of individuals from different disciplines. The Frontiers Workshop group also emphasized that many environmental challenges are global in nature. This recognition of a global environment is timely, as the amendment to our bylaws to change our membership requirements from including only faculty in North America to include faculty at foreign universities, was passed.  By changing our name and geographical qualifications, we have shown that our door is open to our science and engineering colleagues (as are other associations for our members) not just in the USA but around the world.  With these two changes, we have begun an important process of having AEESP take a lead in addressing the environmental issues facing the world today.
As this is my last letter as President of AEEP, I would like to thank all of you that helped the organization, through participation in committees and other activities, during this past year.  I would especially like to thank my fellow board members, and those participants of the NSF/AEEP Environmental Engineering Frontiers Conference, for their support and help. 
I look forward to seeing all of you next year at the AEESP Research Conference to be held at Penn State on August 1-3 (with workshops on July 31).

      Bruce Logan, blogan@psu.edu