Environmental Forensics

An interdisciplinary course that will present topics detailing the intersection between the environment, ethics, law, society, litigation, policy, economics, pollution/contamination, cleanup, testing, standards, and sustainability. Sources of environmental problems are usually related to emissions, pollution, contamination, and/or waste disposal. Whether the cause is intentional or non-intentional, natural factors or a man-made disaster, or due to normal operation or accident, a crisis ensues and cleanup becomes necessary. This inevitably leads to legal actions and litigations that rely on experts in conducting scientific investigations to establish the facts surrounding potential controversies. Topics discussed in the course include liability, environmental site assessment, insurance litigation, toxic torts, science tools, sampling & measurements, statistical analysis, chemical fingerprinting, contaminant transport models, and environmental forensic microscopy. The course will illustrate the above points using case studies.