New Faculty Virginia Tech's College of Engineering 2008-2009

initiated a mentoring program: Mentoring Engineering Research
in Genomics and the Environment (MERGE). In this
program, all students are expected to be both mentors and
mentees. This includes undergraduates, who are mentored
by the graduate students, but also play a role in mentoring by
helping with K-12 activities. Students are also required to give
a formal presentation of their research to the MERGE participants.
The overall goal of the program is to “bring together”
individuals to help develop leadership skills in engineering
research through applying biotechnology to solving important
environmental problems.
Pruden has also served as the advisor to the CSU chapter
of the Environmental Engineering Society, helping to establish
the 1st Annual Rocky Mountain Regional Water Treatment
Competition in April, 2008.
Her most recent research projects are focused on: the
quantification and source-tracking of antibiotic resistance
genes as emerging environmental pollutants; the role of animal
waste management in minimizing the impacts of agricultural
antibiotics to the environment; bioremediation of acid mine
drainage using passive sulfate-reducing permeable reactive
zones; and advancing genome-enabled tools for guiding inoculum
design in engineered treatment systems.
Additional honors she has received include: the 2006 Editor’s
Choice Award (second runner up) for her paper published
in Environmental Science and Technology (second runner up)
and write-ups of her work in Science News, Scientific American
and Discover magazines. At CSU, she received a Faculty
Award for Excellence in Research in CE in 2006 and two
Globe Awards for Contribution to Internationalization of CSU.
She earned her doctorate in environmental science from
the University of Cincinnati in 2002. As a graduate student,
she received the John David Eye Most Outstanding First-year
Graduate Student Award from its CEE department in 1999 and
was named the Most Outstanding Student in Overall Achievement
in 1997 from the Biological Sciences Department. She is
a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
She also earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from the
University of Cincinnati in 1997 and was the recipient of the
prestigious C-Ring Award, which is a university-wide distinction
given each year to the most outstanding female of the
graduating class. She held an undergraduate research fellowship
in 1996 from NSF.
Pruden is a member of the following professional societies:
Association of Environmental Engineering and Science
Professors, International Society for Microbial Ecology, International
Water Association, Water Environment Federation,
and American Society for Microbiology.
Russell A. Green returns to Virginia Tech after spending
the past seven years at the University of
Michigan at Ann Arbor, first as an assistant
professor and then as an associate professor
in its Civil and Environmental Engineering
(CEE) Department. Green earned his
doctorate at Virginia Tech in 2001 as a
student of James K. Mitchell, a member of
both the National Academy of Engineering
and the National Academy of Science.
At Michigan, Green taught undergraduate
and graduate courses in Green
geotechnical
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