Di Toro Named to National Academy of Engineering

In being elected to the National Academy, Di Toro joins fewer than 2200 engineers nationwide. "This is probably the highest honor that a faculty member can achieve in the field of engineering," said CEE Chair Michael J. Chajes. "Dom is a tremendous asset to the Department, the College, and the University of Delaware."

Di Toro joined UD in January 2003 after serving on the faculty at Manhattan College for more than 30 years. He has published over 100 technical papers, as well as a book, Sediment Flux Modeling (John Wiley & Sons). One reviewer called the book "the definitive text on this subject and deserv[ing of] a place in any respectable environmental library" and by another as "masterfully done."

Two areas in which Di Toro's work has had the greatest impact are water quality and sediment flux modeling, and sediment and water quality criteria development. Early in his career, he developed one of the first dynamic models that was used to predict the consequences of nutrient discharges to the Great Lakes. The results were used in the joint US-Canada agreements to limit discharges to Lake Erie.

In the late 1980s, the EPA embarked on the development of Sediment Quality Criteria, and Di Toro was the technical leader of the effort through the 1990s. The Equilibrium Partitioning model and the SEM/AVS method that were developed are now part of common practise. More recently, he and his colleagues have developed criteria models for mixtures of polynuclear hydrocarbons (PAHs) that have recently been published by EPA.

Di Toro also led an effort co-sponsored by the EPA and industrial associations to develop toxic metal water quality criteria that explicitly consider the effects of other parameters including pH, Ca, Mg, and DOC concentrations. The effort resulted in the Biotic Ligand Model. It is currently the basis for research being conducted by many groups in the U.S. and around the world. It has been adopted as the basis for the EPA freshwater copper criteria currently under review.

Di Toro joins five other University of Delaware faculty members who are National Academy members.

UDaily story on Di Toro Election to NAE

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Delaware | Newark, DE 19716-3120
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