Catherine Peters
Dr. Catherine A. Peters is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, School of Engineering & Applied Science, Associate Professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Associated Faculty in both the Department of Geosciences and Princeton Environmental Institute at Princeton University. She is a member of the American Chemical Society, American Geophysical Union, Alpha Chi Sigma, and the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. She is also a member of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors, and she served as President of AEESP from 2002-2003.
She was awarded a joint Ph.D. by Carnegie Mellon University in Civil Engineering and in Engineering and Public Policy. After this she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Michigan in the area of Environmental and Water Resources Engineering. She also holds an M.S. from Carnegie Mellon University in Civil Engineering and a B.S.E. from the University of Michigan in Chemical Engineering.
Recent awards include the AEESP Distinguished Service Award, presented for service as President of AEESP (2002-2003) and for service on the AEESP Board of Directors (2000-2004); Educator of the Year, presented by the New Jersey Section ASCE to an outstanding educator who has contributed substantially to the field of civil engineering.
Dr. Peters works in the areas of environmental chemistry and environmental risk assessment. She is particularly interested in reactions kinetics, and her work typically combines laboratory experimentation with mathematical modeling to infer and simulate reaction rates for a variety of environmental systems. She and her research group are currently studying the geochemical reactions that are important for geological storage of CO2. She has also addressed research problems involving contamination of water and soils with organic pollutants, particularly non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.