Hazardous Substance Research Centers/South & Southwest

Research Web Site

Beginning in August 2004, Dr. Reible became Professor and Chair of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Previously, he was Chevron Professor of Chemical Engineering at Louisiana State University.

Dr. Reible is not only director of the HSRC/SSW, but he is an active researcher. Among the processes under study by Dr. Reible in cooperation with the center are bioturbation, the contaminant migration associated with the normal life-cycle activities of sediment-dwelling organisms, the bioavailability of hydrophobic organic contaminants to these sediment-dwelling organisms, evaporation of volatile contaminants from dredged material, and facilitated sorption and transport associated with the presence of colloidal organic carbon in sediment pore-waters. Research is also underway examining the competitive balance between bioturbation, which tends to oxidize and mobilize contaminants, and microbial activity which tends to eliminate and, in some cases, immobilize contaminants. The Center has active projects investigating sediment remediation including both removal and non-removal options such as capping. Dr. Reible leads a large demonstration of capping technologies that also incorporate in-situ treatment options. This demonstration is being conducted on the Anacostia River in Washington, DC, and is described in more detail at the website, http://www.hsrc-ssw.org/ana-index.html.

Dr. Reible joined the Louisiana State University after receiving a PhD in Chemical Engineering in 1982 from the California Institute of Technology. He was promoted to Professor in 1992. He was Shell Professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Sydney, Australia between 1993 and 1995, returning to LSU as Director of the Hazardous Substance Research Center in late 1995. In 1986 he was awarded the New Engineering Educator Excellence Award by the American Society of Engineering Education and in 1987, an Environmental Science and Engineering Fellowship by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1991 he was a Senior Visitor to the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University. He was an invited guest of the Institute of Experimental Meteorology in Obninsk, Russia in 1988 and again in 1995. He is the recipient of the Lawrence K. Cecil Environmental Division Award of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers for 2001 and the Charles E. Coates Award of the Local Sections of the American Chemical Society and American Institute of Chemical Engineers for 2002.

He has served as an external reviewer of Environmental Engineering programs in Australia and Singapore. He is the author of the textbooks, Fundamentals of Environmental Engineering and Diffusion Models of Environmental Transport, and more than 100 technical papers and reports.

Dr. Reible has been active in policy implications of the assessment and in-situ remediation of contaminated sediments and regularly advises industry and regulatory bodies on management approaches to contaminated sediments. He served on the National Research Council Committee on PCB-contaminated sediments and currently serves on the National Research Council Committee for Remediation of Navy Sites. He recently provided Congressional testimony before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Water Resources and the Environment on strategies for the management of contaminated sediment sites.

Resumé and Research Activities

Current Research
Resumé
Short Biography

Recent Publications

Books

Reible, D.D., K. Demnerova, Ed. In-Situ Assessment and Remediation of Contaminated Sites, Nato Science Series in Environmental Sciences, Kluwer, Netherlands (2002)
Chien, C. C.; M. A. Medina, Jr.; G. F. Pinder; D. D. Reible; B. E. Sleep; and C. Zheng, Ed. Environmental Modeling and Management: Theory, Practice, and Future Directions, Today Media, Inc., Wilmington, DE (2002)
Choy, B. and D.D. Reible, Diffusion Models of Environmental Transport, CRC/Lewis Publishers (2000) 184 pp.
Reible, D.D., Fundamentals of Environmental Engineering, CRC/ Lewis Publishers (1999) 526 pp.

Selected Refereed Journal Publications

Reible, D.D., D. Hayes, C. Lue-Hing, J. Patterson, N. Bhowmik, M. Johnson, and J.Teal , Comparison of the Long-Term Risks of Removal and In-Situ Management of Contaminated Sediments in the Fox River,", Journal of Soil and Sediment Contamination, 12(3) 325-344 (2003)
Lu, X.X., D. Reible, "Linking sediment exposure with effects: modeling techniques, organic availability and uptake", IntÕl Journal of Sediment Research, 18, 2 208-213 (2003)
Lu, X.X, D. D. Reible, J.W. Fleeger, and Y.Z. Chai, "Bioavailability of Desorption ÐResistant Phenanthrene to the Oligochaete Ilyodrilus templetoni" Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 22, 153-160 (2003)
Work, P.A., P.R. Moore, and Reible, D.D., Bioturbation, advection, and diffusion of a conserved tracer in a laboratory flume Water Resources Research, v 38, n 6, 241-249 (2002)
Reible, D. And S. Mohanty, "A Levy Flight Random Walk Model for Bioturbation", Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 21, 4 875-881 (2002)
Ravikrishna, R., K.T. Valsaraj, L.J. Thibodeaux, and D.D. Reible. Effects of oil and grease on the vaporization of organic compounds from contaminated sediments, Environmental Engineering Sciences, 19, 2, 101-114 (2002).