Project Personnel
All project personnel will seek to understand what is not yet known that will be important to learn enumerating and describing the significance of gaps in data.
Alan Ducatman
MD, MSc, Chair, Department of Community MedicineWest Virginia University School of Medicine
Dr. Alan Ducatman is Chair, Department of Community Medicine, at West Virginia University. He received the MD degree from Wayne State University and the MSc in Environmental Health from the City University of New York. He completed post-graduate training at Brown University and the Mayo Clinic, and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Occupational Medicine. Before coming to WVU, Dr. Ducatman served as the Director of MIT Environmental Medical Service, and Director of the Professional Occupational Health Branch, United States Navy Environmental Health Center. A fellow of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) and the American College of Physicians, Dr. Ducatman has received numerous awards including ACOEM's Robert J. Hilker Lectureship Award and its Excellence in Authorship Award. He has led a successful effort to include Environmental Medicine as a central function of his professional society and his specialty's board-certification process. Dr. Ducatman's research interests include occupational and environmental toxicity, diseases potentially related to environmental exposures, and prevention of environmental illness. He has also been a leader in preventive medicine concerning career pathways of physicians engaged in disease prevention, and associated preventive medicine training needs.
Paul Ziemkiewicz
Ph.D., Director, West Virginia Water Research InstituteWest Virginia University National Research Center for Coal & Energy
Paul Ziemkiewicz is the Director of the West Virginia Water Research Institute (WVWRI). The WVWRI includes the National Mine Land Reclamation Center (NMLRC), the Combustion Byproducts Recycling Consortium (CBRC), the Hydrology Research Center (HRC), and the Geo-Engineering Center (GEC). The WVWRI and its programs range from local, regional, national, to international in scope.
Dr. Ziemkiewic's responsibilities focus on developing water-related research opportunities, assembling and managing research teams and responding to the needs of sponsoring agencies. In addition to his research roles, Dr. Ziemkiewicz serves on both state and federal policy advisory committees focusing on mine reclamation and water pollution. Presently, he provides technical support to USEPA toward developing new regulatory guidance for the use of coal combustion wastes in coal mines. Dr. Ziemkiewicz is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Environment and Education Training Center, and a member of the West Virginia Acid Mine Drainage Task Force, the Eastern Mine Drainage Federal Consortium, and the National Research Council Study Team: Water Quality in the Pittsburgh Region.
Dr. Ziemkiewicz received the E.M. Watkin Award in 1985 for Outstanding Contribution to the Betterment of Land Reclamation in Canada, presented by the Canadian Reclamation Association. He holds a Bachelor's in Biology and a Master's in Range Ecology from Utah State University, and Doctorate in Forest Ecology from the University of British Columbia.
John Quaranta
Ph.D., P.E., Assistant Professor, College of Civil and Environmental EngineeringWest Virginia University College of Engineering
John D. Quaranta is an Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at West Virginia University College of Engineering and Mineral Resources. Dr. Quaranta teaches geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering courses including soil mechanics, slope stability, soil testing, and geosynthetics. Presently his research and development in coal waste management are in the geotechnical areas of refuse impoundment safety and operation, geosynthetic filters for coarse and fine coal, instrumentation, and emergency preparedness of impoundment facilities.
Dr. Quaranta received his undergraduate Bachelor degrees in Mechanical and Civil Engineering and the MSCE and Ph.D. in geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering; he is a Registered Professional Engineer. Dr. Quaranta received the 1997 US Department of Energy - Environment, Safety and Health Achievement Award for work on inactive and legacy waste sites nationwide.
Benoit Van Aken
Dr. Benoit Van Aken is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Temple University. His research area is the remediation of soil and water polluted with toxic contaminants. Dr. Van Aken is teaching Environmental Chemistry, Principles of Biological Water Treatment, Water Chemistry and Biology, and Introduction to Environmental Engineering.
Dr. Benoit Van Aken earned a M.S. in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering in 1995 and a Ph.D. in Biological Engineering in 2000 from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. Between 2000 and 2005, he held a Post-Doctoral and then Research Scientist position at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Iowa.
For many years, Dr. Van Aken has been working on the bioremediation of sites polluted by toxic organic and inorganic compounds, including nitroaromatic explosives, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, and heavy metals. Dr. Van Aken has training and research experience in ecotoxicology.
Tamara Vandivort
Program Coordinator, West Virginia Water Research InstituteWest Virginia University National Research Center for Coal & Energy
Ms. Vandivort is a Environmental Geologist with the West Virginia Water Research Institute at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia. Her responsibilities include project management, research, and outreach coordination. She manages the USGS Water Resources Research program and coordinates the activities of the West Virginia Advisory Committee for Water Research. Her range in environmental research projects includes water quality, wastewater technologies, sustainable energy, coal slurry injection, and utilization of coal ash. Ms. Vandivort holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Environmental Geology from West Virginia University.
Ben Mack
Research Associate, West Virginia Water Research InstituteWest Virginia University National Research Center for Coal & Energy
Ben is originally from Morgantown, WV. He graduated from West Virginia University (WVU) with a dual major in Agronomy and Environmental Protection in 1999. After working for Friends of the Cheat, a local watershed group, for two years, he went back to WVU for a Master of Science in Plant and Soil Sciences. He received his Masters in May 2008 and currently works for the West Virginia Water Research Institute at WVU. His current work focuses on Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) and its remediation.
External Expert Panel
Expert panel members will attend meetings, review draft documents and provide advice on writing of final reports
Dr. William Orem
U.S. Geological Survey
Dr. Patrick V. Brady
Sandia National Laboratory
Dr. W. Allen Robison
Center for Disease Contro
