Siegrist, who holds a joint appointment with ORNL and the Colorado School of Mines, will represent both organizations on NATO's Committee on Challenges to Modern Society (CCMS).
Siegrist will serve on the CCMS Study on Evaluation of Demonstrated and Emerging Technologies for Remediation of Contaminated Land. Siegrist, one of only five people appointed each year to that study, will deliver a report on his research plan at the committee's semi-annual meeting in Adelaide, Australia, in February 1996.
In the area of contaminated land, Siegrist's research has focused on "in-situ" technologies designed to decontaminate and remediate sites in place, without having to remove and later replace the contaminated media. Because of financial, environmental and public health concerns, in-situ technology is often preferred when decontaminating natural resources such as soil and groundwater.
The purpose of the NATO Fellowship is to promote international exchange of information between the 14 nations involved in the study. Siegrist's participation is expected to call attention to the wealth of environmental remediation expertise available in Oak Ridge, as well as bringing back to East Tennessee information on successful remedial technologies being used around the globe.
In addition to conducting research, publishing and lecturing, Siegrist is directly involved in environmental projects that utilize his extensive research. Earlier this year, a team led by Siegrist won an award from Lockheed Martin Energy Systems for a successfully implemented in-situ project to remove soil contaminants at the DOE's Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Ohio.
Siegrist, originally from Waukesha, Wis., completed his bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in civil and environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Before joining ORNL in 1990, he was a visiting senior scientist with the Norwegian Center for Environmental Research outside Oslo.
While at ORNL in 1993, Siegrist was invited to work on a low-level mixed waste sludge project with the Los Alamos National Laboratory group at DOE's Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Sites (RFETS) near Denver. Once there, he became a visiting professor with the Environmental Science and Engineering Division at the Colorado School of Mines, where he teaches graduate level courses and advises students.
Because of opportunities to conduct field scale research and demonstration projects with ORNL scientists and engineers in Grand Junction, Colo., while continuing his work with DOE RFETS, Siegrist will remain on indefinite assignment through 1996. Although he has converted his full-time work for ORNL into a part-time position to join the visiting faculty at the school, he continues to participate in several environmental technology projects that he initiated while in Oak Ridge.
Siegrist's wife, Sue, and their 10-year old son, Jonathan, live with him in Boulder, where she is a professional graphics designer.
ORNL, one of DOE's multiprogram national research and development facilities, is managed by Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, which also manages the Oak Ridge K-25 Site and the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant.