Outstanding Young Alumni Award
Dr.Laurie S. McNeill, Outstanding Young Alumni Award 2003
Ph.D. 2000
Assistant Professor, Utah State University

Laurie McNeill has been conducting award-winning environmental research since she was an undergraduate student at the University of Colorado at Boulder. "I met Laurie in 1992, on the first day of the first class I taught at the University of Colorado," says Dr. Marc Edwards, who left Colorado to join the faculty of the Via Department in 1997. "By the end of the semester, she was the top student in the class and wanted to become involved in research. She was a rising junior then, and we've worked together ever since."



The two began their collaboration with the subject of arsenic removal at water treatment plants. In 1994, Laurie presented their findings at both the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) National Conference on Environmental Engineering and the American Water Works Association (AWWA) Water Quality Technology Conference. She received second place in the ASCE National Technical Paper Contest and first place in the Society for Women Engineers National Technical Presentation Competition.



After completing her bachelor's degree in chemical engineering in 1994, Laurie stayed at Colorado to work on her master's in civil engineering. She continued to work with Dr. Edwards on arsenic removal and presented her thesis research at the AWWA National Conference Universities Forum. In 1997 her master's research was published in Journal AWWA and she won the AWWA Academic Achievement Award (M.S. level). She also was invited to speak at the 1998 AWWA Inorganics Conference and Arsenic Workshop.



Laurie could have earned a doctorate at Colorado with a relatively brief follow-up to her master's research, but she took a more difficult route, entering the civil engineering Ph.D. program at Virginia Tech in 1997 and delving into the complex research topic of iron corrosion. "Laurie made that decision with the full realization that it would require a move and an extra two years to finish her Ph.D.," notes Dr. Edwards, who also had made the move to Blacksburg.



Working again with Dr. Edwards as her advisor, Laurie attained great success in her doctoral program. In 1998 she received a Marion Via Fellowship and won the AWWA's highest recognition for graduate research, the Abel Wolman Doctoral Fellowship. The following year, she presented the first paper on her iron corrosion research at the 14th International Corrosion Conference in Capetown, South Africa, and was invited to chair a session during the conference. She also received the National Association of Corrosion Engineers Old Dominion Section Scholarship.



Dr. McNeill completed her Ph.D. at Virginia Tech in 2000 and the following year received two of the highest possible honors for her research-the Universities Council on Water Resources Ph.D. Dissertation Award and the AWWA Academic Achievement Award (Ph.D. level).



"I believe that Laurie was the first person to win national awards in the field of drinking water treatment research at the undergraduate, master's and doctoral levels," Dr. Edwards says. "In my opinion, her Ph.D. work on iron corrosion processes in water distribution systems will be a revolutionary contribution to the fundamental understanding of this important area. I credit a major portion of my own success to simply having her in my research group."



In 2000 Dr. McNeill accepted a faculty position at Utah State University. She is an associate of the Utah Water Research Laboratory and participates in the Utah Water Quality Alliance. One major accomplishment is her recent appointment to the State of Utah's Drinking Water Board. While she continues to study arsenic removal and iron corrosion, she has expanded her research into studies of chromium in drinking water and coagulation problems at water treatment plants.



In her free time, Laurie enjoys hiking, camping, climbing, snowshoeing and snowboarding with her two dogs. "I enjoyed the mountains around Blacksburg," she says, "but my heart is really in the Rocky Mountains of the West."