Raising Environmental Managers from the Ground Up

NJBIZ: Can you tell me about the doctoral environmental management program?

Sarkar: We offer a degree in environmental management, called DEnvM. This program has 18 students at this point, out of which eight are full-time doctoral students that are supported by the state. It started in 2003, so this is the fifth year of the program. Four doctoral students have graduated already — two of them are working for universities and two of them are working in the [environmental management] industry.

NJBIZ: What is environmental management?

Sarkar: It’s basically a mix of environmental science and policy and regulation. What we’re trying to do is generate scientists who have a clear understanding of the applied aspects of their science — what the policy requirements are — as well as trying to generate environmental-policy people who make the policies based on scientific information, so that they have a good scientific background that they can use when they make those policies.

NJBIZ: As the new director, what are your plans for the program?

Sarkar: The first thing that we’re trying to do is get a Ph.D. designation for the program. In the couple of months that I’ve been here, we’ve submitted a Ph.D. proposal to New Jersey and we are having our proposal reviewed. We’re trying to get a Ph.D. designation for our program, which makes our program way more marketable than the DEnvM that we currently have.

NJBIZ: What obstacles are there to having a DEnvM program instead of a Ph.D. program?

Sarkar: Outside of the tristate area, people have never heard of this DEnvM program. When we write grant proposals, we are going to hire doctoral students to work on the grant proposal, and the doctoral students are automatically assumed to be Ph.D. students in science. The grant funding agencies do not even know what a DEnvM is.

NJBIZ: What is the difference between getting a degree in environmental science and getting one in environmental management?

Sarkar: An environmental science graduate goes to an environmental consulting [firm] and learns, on the job, about environmental management, about the policies. Here, [graduates] are already trained, and they should have an advantage over people who have to learn and get on-the-job training in environmental management.

NJBIZ: How can environmental managers help tackle environmental issues in New Jersey?

Sarkar: For example, in Newark Bay, there are a tremendous amount of PCBs [polychlorinated biphenyls] in the sediments in that place. Environmental managers can tackle this issue, not only from a scientific viewpoint on how PCBs react in the environment, but what happens to PCBs after they’re released to the aquatic system — what is the risk that humans are facing from being exposed to that PCB contamination, what is the risk to the ecosystem? How can we control the risk, how do we remediate the site to get rid of the risk forever? We are generating graduates who not only understand the science part of this — like safe transport of chemicals — but also the management side of it, such as risk assessment, impact assessment, mitigation of risk and restoration.

NJBIZ: Is there is a void that is filled by environmental managers in New Jersey?

Sarkar: We can use as many of them as we can generate. If we did not have environmental managers in this part of the country, we would be in serious trouble. New Jersey really needs more environmental management. This is the Superfund capital of the world. The necessity will increase with time and hopefully in the next eight years, we’ll see more need for this kind of professional.

NJBIZ: What do you think are some of the most significant environmental issues right now in the state?

Sarkar: New Jersey is known as the Garden State for a reason. We had numerous orchards at one time. To get nice fruits, good yields, people used pesticides for a long time. We are cleaning up some of the orchards and making them our residential properties. So what was an orchard site where your kid would never have ventured except maybe a school picnic, now it’s becoming a household affair — it’s becoming your backyard that your kid is getting exposed to on a daily basis. These are issues which are emerging, these things have not hit the fan yet. Bitusol bladdery emeu resume oncogenesis conjuration flesher hydrophysics, denouncement. Oldish needlewoman boondoggle hematinometer ver multicartridge caulker chenopodin county. Policymaker fiancee starter cringing peptic uniqueness!