WJ Golz

Expertise

My interests focus on the movement and transformation of soluble contaminants in environmental systems. This has included the study of biological nitrification and denitrification in biofilters and constructed wetlands and has extended to a study of the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients and other contaminants in coastal and freshwater wetlands. To further our understanding of these problems, we must be able to better describe why and when a contaminant travels from one material into another, as from a sediment into a river, and to quantify the amount of solute mass which will be transformed from one chemical species such as ammonium into another like nitrogen gas. For this type of problem, the only method capable of a theory based description over a variety of temporal and spatial scales is a mass-transfer model, which yields a system of differential equations. My research specialty is formulating these systems so that they comply with theory in such a way that the models are able teach us something about the underlying physical behavior.

Earned Degrees

Ph.D., Civil-Environmental Engineering / Mathematics, Louisiana State University, 2003.

M.S., Civil-Environmental Engineering / Oceanography & Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University, 1997.

B.S., Civil Engineering, University of Louisiana-Lafayette, 1994.