Dr. Joel Ducoste
Dr. Joel Ducoste was living in Ohio when he began considering the future of his academic career. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign stood out to him as a top choice because of its notable environmental engineering program and interesting research occurring at the time. He received his Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the University of Illinois in 1996 under the mentorship of Dr. Mark M Clark.
Dr. Ducoste is now a professor at North Carolina State University. Dr. Ducoste is known internationally for his research on physio-chemical processes in water treatment, computational fluid dynamics modeling and water/wastewater process optimization.
The Illinois Experience
Dr. Ducoste remembers his time as a Ph.D. candidate at U of I fondly. His favorite memories include his fellow graduate students and the sense of community created during their time as students. The graduate students often planned group gatherings like casual volleyball matches, where Dr. Ducoste found everyone to be “nice and collegial,” which allowed for him to build relationships outside of research and classes. These relationships proved to have a lasting impact, with some of his current colleagues being his old campus friends from graduate school.
“You have lived experiences that are going to transform engineering and science, do not just follow what was done ahead of you.”
Career Path
Dr. Ducoste’s path to professorship was unique. Although academia was always important to him, Dr. Ducoste did not become a professor directly after he received his Ph.D. He spent five years in industry as a process engineer at CH2M and as an advanced manufacturing engineer at GE Aircraft Engines. While his time in the industry was valuable, he prefers teaching, noting that academia allows him to do more than he could have in previous roles, primarily his research. Dr. Ducoste now has 25 years of experience in higher education as a professor and administrator. He has been recognized as an expert in modeling water and wastewater treatment processes using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).
Dr. Ducoste explained his preference for professorship. "Research was always a vehicle to educate the next generation," he said.
So, being a professor wasn't his main goal. "It was solving these problems and allowing my excitement to solve these problems, to energize and hopefully encourage new researchers and people who enter the field to also work on these challenging problems and provide their input. That is the biggest difference that sets apart research at a federal agency, national lab or a private company and doing research at a university,” he said.
Making an Impact
Dr. Ducoste has made great strides in human health and protection through his research. By the nature of his work, Dr. Ducoste helps eliminate interactions between contaminates, humans, and the environment. Through his time in the field, Dr. Ducoste has observed that environmental engineers have just as important a societal impact as doctors. "Doctors treat things after the condition has transpired; we are trying to do it before it happens."
During a long and accomplished career, Dr. Ducoste has many important lessons to pass down to current students. One of them being: never give up your creativity.