Looking to the Future with Villanova's Strategic Plan

Stormwater Management Expert Makes Recommendations to the EPA
According to Robert Traver, Ph.D., P.E.,
M.C.E. ’82, director of the Villanova
Urban Stormwater Partnership and the
Center for the Advancement of Sustainability
in Engineering, the time is right for
the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) to adopt effective, enforceable regulations
that promote sustainable stormwater
control measures (SCMs) and
respect the complexity of these management
systems.
“Regulatory standards and their performance
should be based on science,” he said.
Dr. Traver traveled to Washington,
D.C., in January to participate in the
EPA’s “listening session” about stormwater
issues. He advocated four key principles
for consideration:
• Using a systems approach for sustainable
management: Regulations should take
into account land use and its stressors;
systems design, operations, and
replacement; and the role surface runoff
might play as a pollutant.
• Addressing stormwater hydrology as a
complex system: A one-size-fits-all
mitigation solution will not work.
• Promoting green infrastructure SCMs:
“From an engineering perspective,
green infrastructure SCMs are the most
cost-effective and sustainable approach
to mitigating the effects of urban
stormwater runoff,” Dr. Traver said.
• Evaluating early and often: The success
of new regulations should be evaluated
immediately so that adjustments can
be made.
The EPA has committed to finalizing
new national stormwater regulations by
November 2012.
Villanova Signs MOU with Ireland’s IT Sligo
Villanova University has signed a memorandum of understanding
(MOU) with the Institute of Technology (IT)
Sligo, located in western Ireland. The MOU is allowing students
enrolled in IT Sligo’s master’s in Biopharmaceutical
Science program to take advantage of not only the College of
Engineering’s distance-education capabilities but also its graduate
Biochemical Engineering courses.
“It’s exciting to know that we attract students from other
countries because of the quality of our courses and our delivery
platform,” said William Kelly, Ph.D., associate professor of
Chemical Engineering. Dr. Kelly, whose research is focused on
biopharmaceutical processing, taught the first cohort of Irish
students in spring 2009 and, along with IT Sligo faculty member
Kieran Tobin, was instrumental in laying the foundation for
the MOU signing.
Administrators at IT Sligo are equally enthusiastic about the
growing relationship between the schools. “Through the
medium of distance education, this agreement affords our students
access to world-class teaching in Biopharmaceutical
Engineering at Villanova University,” said Dr. Jeremy Bird,
Head of the School of Science.
One benefit of the partnership is that the Irish students are
bringing a global perspective to the classroom. In addition,
the partnership is creating closer ties between Villanova and
Ireland’s significant pharmaceutical industry.
IT Sligo’s Kieran Tobin (left) and Dr. William Kelly, associate
professor of Chemical Engineering at Villanova
Summer 2010 49