Department of Environmental Engineering

Background 

Established in 1983, the Department of Environmental Engineering at Khon Kaen University is now among the most renowned environmental engineering programs in Thailand. The program builds a strong foundation in environmental engineering principles to address emerging environmental issues such as wastewater treatment, clean drinking water, air-quality monitoring, waste management, and pollution control.

The four-year Bachelor of Environmental Engineering program provides students with comprehensive knowledge and engineering design experience, enabling them to plan, design, construct, and operate environmental pollution control systems and engage in environmental restoration. Students begin with foundational courses in physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics before progressing to advanced environmental engineering topics in their junior and senior years.

The program also offers a variety of elective subjects, allowing students to select courses from specific focus areas, including pollution prevention, noise pollution control, climate change, energy and environment, waste recycling, and water reuse. Our program enables students to craft a tailored curriculum to meet their goals with hands-on experience and opportunities to study abroad, participate in cooperative education programs, or engage in research. As a result, graduates are well-prepared for careers in industry and further graduate study across various disciplines.

The Department of Environmental Engineering also offers master’s and doctoral degree programs, providing advanced, in-depth education and research opportunities that prepare students for careers in both academia and the environmental engineering industry. These graduate programs are supported by dedicated faculty members, state-of-the-art research facilities, and extensive collaborations with other engineering and science faculties.

The programs are led by renowned faculty members who conduct interdisciplinary research initiatives within the Faculty of Engineering and with universities worldwide. Our research attracts financial sponsorship from private industry, governmental agencies, and research centers, such as the Research Center for Environmental and Hazardous Substance Management (EHSM), the Center of Excellence on Hazardous Substance Management, the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT), the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), and various private industries.

In addition to interdisciplinary research initiatives, the department actively provides services for water quality analysis and environmental pollution control. The Environmental Engineering Testing Laboratory (EETL) was established to support various research and teaching projects both within and outside Khon Kaen University. Accredited under ISO 17025-2561 (ISO/IEC 17025: 2017) since 2009, EETL offers high-quality analytical testing services for water quality assessments. Commonly conducted tests include biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), pH, heavy metals, total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), oil and grease, coliform bacteria, and sulfide. The mission of EETL is to provide high-quality, reasonably priced analyses to support research projects conducted by scientists and students throughout the university and the northeastern region of Thailand.

Faculty 

Environmental Engineering Program 

Program Educational Objectives (PEOs)

• PEO1: Graduates practice proficiently and professionally in the fields of environmental engineering.

• PEO2: Graduates engage productively in environmental engineering industries, and related business through graduate-level studies, cutting-edge research and development, and lifelong learning

• PEO3: Graduates compete effectively in a world of rapid technological change and assume leadership roles within industrial, entrepreneurial, academic, or governmental environments in the broad context of environmental engineering.

• PEO4: Graduates act professionally and ethically in the workplace and function effectively as individual members or leaders of multidisciplinary teams in a diverse global economy using their communication and leadership skills.

Student Outcomes (SOs)

• SO1: An ability to identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering, science, and mathematics

• SO2: An ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors

• SO3: An ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences

• SO4: An ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts

• SO5: An ability to function effectively on a team whose members together provide leadership, create a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives

• SO6: An ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions

• SO7: An ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed using appropriate learning strategies.

Admissions and Graduates