Aqua Terra Tech

Associate Professor of Geological and Environmental Engineering

405 Dow

487-2535

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Personal Statement

My approach to learning is not to rely only on the transfer of knowledge through lectures, reading, and rote practice. I place greater importance on providing opportunities for students in both classroom and research settings to develop their own problem-solving skills by attempting to solve problems independently. The best opportunities are those where the problem is new, requires synthesizing many technical aspects, and may also require the student to learn a brand new technical skill for some aspects.

Education

• Bachelors; Michigan Technological University
• Masters; Michigan Technological University
• Ph.D.; Michigan Technological University

Research Interests

Dr. Gierke is interested in fundamental studies of processes affecting chemical fate and transport in soil, water, and atmospheric systems. Primarily focusing on vapor transport in soils, solute movement in groundwater, and, more recently, sulfur dioxide interactions with volcanic ash in the upper atmosphere. In addition, he has led and collaborated on applied studies of remediation techniques for contaminated groundwater and soils that pertain to processes he has studied from fundamental perspectives, including soil vapor extraction and air sparging. He is currently pursuing similar studies for aerosol-surfactant sparging, ozone sparging, steam flushing for removal of contaminants from groundwater, and the effectiveness of cement kiln dust for sequestration of carbon dioxide.

• field performance of air sparging for removing volatile organic chemicals from ground water
• volatile organic vapor transport in unsaturated soils
• sulfur dioxide interactions with volcanic ash

Teaching Interests

Dr. Gierke's primary teaching responsibilities include the following undergraduate courses: geohydrology, earth mechanics, groundwater engineering, subsurface remediation, and senior design projects. He also teaches graduate courses in flow and transport in porous and fractured media and in groundwater modeling. His teaching responsibilities include the development of: (1) fundamental skills in mechanics, chemistry, physics, and calculus as they apply to problems and issues dealing with soils and groundwater; and (2) engineering skills as they pertain to the analysis of real-world problems (e.g., impact of groundwater pollution, wellhead protection) and engineering design (e.g., waterwells, subsurface remediation systems). He has included many of his research projects in curriculum development and in senior design projects as well, activities that have mutual benefits in terms of undergraduate education and scholarly research. Over the past three years he has been advising a multi-disciplinary group of undergraduates on a multi-year watershed characterization and hydrological modeling study supported by the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. The group operates under a university-wide program called the Enterprise program, which fosters the development of undergraduate "businesses" or enterprises. Dr. Gierke's enterprise is called Aqua Terra Tech, and they perform geophysical surveys, pumptests, field mapping, and ground water modeling.

• Hydrogeology
• Ground water Engineering
• Contaminant Transport
• Subsurface Remediation

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