Linda Ann Figueroa

Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Linda FigueroaEnvironmental engineers play an important role in society in addressing issues of sustainable development and complex/interdisciplinary problems. Environmental engineers needs to have the knowledge and experience required to facilitate engineering solutions to the environmental interplay between food, energy, water within a sustainable community context.

I have a broad range of experiences that I bring to addressing environmental issues that include design and analysis of water and wastewater treatment systems, application of molecular microbiology tools to nitrogen transformations and the biogeochemistry of metal and radionuclide immobilization.

My research is driven by microbial solutions to environmental issues with the recognition of the need to minimize energy requirements and thus the carbon footprint of the solution. My approach is to partner with industry and government agencies to ensure that we are producing solutions that will be accepted and implemented. My passion is in the linkage of fundamental microbial processes with geochemistry and modeling to create solutions of the future.

Contact

Coolbaugh Hall
303-273-3491
lfiguero@mines.edu

Education

  • PhD, Civil Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 1989
  • MS, Civil Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 1985
  • BS, Civil Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 1978
  • Professional Civil Engineer, California State # C32997

Publications

  • Miller, A., Figueroa, L., and Wildeman, T. (2011). Zinc and Nickel Removal in Simulated Limestone Treatment of Mining Influenced Water, Applied Geochemistry. 26 (1) 125-132.
  • Hemsi, P.S., Shackelford, C.D., and Figueroa, L.A. (2010). Calibration of Reactive Transport models for Remediation of Mine Drainage in Solid-Substate Bio-Columns, Journal of Environmental Engineering, 136 (9) 914-925.
  • Gusek, J. and Figueroa, L (Co-Senior Editors). Management Technologies for Metal Mining Influenced Water: Mitigation of Metal Mining Influenced Water, Volume 2, Published by Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, 2009, ISBN 9780873352703, 170 pages
  • Smith, J.E. and Figueroa L.A. (2007) Nitrogen sources and consumption in brewery wastewater treatment, Environmental Engineer: Applied Research and Practice, 43(2): 42-50.
  • Logan, M. V., Reardon, K. F., Figueroa, L. A., McLain, J. E. T., and Ahmann, D. (2005) Microbial community activities during establishment, performance, and decline of bench-scale passive treatment systems for mine drainage, Water Research, 39 (18):4537-4551.
  • Hemsi, P.S., Shackelford, C.D., and Figueroa, L.A. (2005). Modeling the influence of decomposing organic solids on sulfate reduction rates for iron precipitation. Environmental Science and Technology, 39(9): 3215-3225.
  • P. Noophan, L.A. Figueroa and J. Munakata Marr, “Nitrite Oxidation Inhibition by Hydroxylamine (Experimental and Model Evaluation)”, Water Science and Technology, 50 (6): 293-304 (2004).

Recent Courses

  • Microbial Process Analysis and Modeling
  • Wastewater Engineering
  • Introduction to Environmental Science and Engineering
  • Stewardship of Nuclear Resources
  • Environmental Radiochemistry