Ian

Bourg

Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the High Meadows Environmental Institute

Research interests: Geochemical and mass transport properties of porous media, including clay mineral surface geochemistry; geologic carbon sequestration; kinetic isotope effects in aqueous systems; liquid water at interfaces; coupling between geochemistry, geomechanics, and mass fluxes in porous media.

Student and professor having a discussion while student points at information in a notebook. — For her senior thesis, Amélie Lemay worked with Ian Bourg, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and the High Meadows Environmental Institute. She developed complex simulations of how PFAS molecules, a critical class of environmental contaminants, move and interact at the interface of water and air. Photos by Sameer A. Khan/Fotobuddy

Can ‘forever’ chemicals become less so? This senior thesis works toward smarter cleanup of PFAS.

Four engineering students named Goldwater Scholars

Matrix of fluorescent particles with pores that open and close — Sujit Datta’s research group received funding to develop leaf-inspired soft materials that someday could allow robots to efficiently transfer water and heat. Shown here are microscopic slices at different depths through a mesoporous thermo-responsive hydrogel that will form the basis of artificial leaf stomata that are programmed to dynamically open and close in response to sunlight or heat. Black circles show large voids in the hydrogel structure; white shows fluorescent particles embedded in the hydrogel matrix.

Artificial leaves, floating breakwaters and musical memories are among recipients of 2021 innovation grants

Large aggregates of glucose shown in green; bacteria grow around them, labeled in red — “Soil on a chip” experiments conducted by Princeton researchers mimic the interactions between soils, carbon compounds and soil bacteria, producing new evidence that large carbon molecules can potentially escape the soil much faster than previously thought. In this microscopy image, soil bacteria (red) grow around aggregates of glucose (green) that stick to pores in a transparent synthetic clay.

Carbon-chomping soil bacteria may pose hidden climate risk

Graphic image with words Junior Faculty Awards 2020

Junior faculty awards recognize outstanding teaching and research

Engineering faculty take on ‘Grand Challenges’ in the environment

Three students look closely at a model of an architectural structure.

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Fundamental insights into the built and natural environments, and interactions between the two

Ian Bourg