David Kosson

Dr. David S. Kosson is the Gass Family Chair in Energy and the Environment, and Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Vanderbilt University, where he also has appointments as Professor of Chemical Engineering, and Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and is the Director of the Environmental Engineering Laboratory. Professor Kosson is the Principal Investigator for the multi‐university Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP) supported by the Department of Energy to improve the risk‐informed basis for remediation and management of nuclear waste from former defense materials production and nuclear energy. Professor Kosson’s research focuses on management of nuclear and chemical wastes, including leaching assessment, process development and contaminant mass transfer applied to groundwater, soil, sediment, and waste systems.

Professor Kosson’s research on waste management and environmental remediation allows new understanding of the fundamental behavior of chemical and radionuclide contaminants in wastes, engineered systems, and the environment to impact major decisions and policy. For example, work by his research group in collaboration with other faculty and international partners has resulted in establishment of the U.S. Leaching Environmental Assessment Framework (LEAF), which is now being used for national policy decisions and regulations on waste management in the U.S. and other countries.

Professor Kosson has participated in or led many external technical reviews on nuclear waste processing and environmental remediation for the Department of Energy including for tank wastes and a range of technology approaches at Hanford, Savannah River, WIPP and Idaho sites. Professor Kosson also has provided expertise and leadership for the National Academies, and as advisory to the Department of Defense, for two decades on demilitarization of chemical weapons in the United States and abroad. Professor Kosson has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed professional journal articles, book, book chapters and other archival publications. He received a Ph.D. in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering from Rutgers University, where he subsequently was Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering. Prof. Kosson served as the Department Chairman for Civil and Environmental Engineering at Vanderbilt University from 2000 through 2012.

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