Engineers can be a calculating bunch, in the most literal sense.
It's their job to crunch hard numbers to find solutions to all
manner of problems. But environmental engineering goes far
beyond mathematics and physics. The work requires a command of a
broad range of disciplines, including chemistry, biology and
environmental law. And rather than designing buildings,
industrial machinery or power plants, environmental engineers
work to mitigate the harmful environmental impacts those
projects can have. Perhaps for that reason the discipline tends
to attract more socially inclined engineers and a larger cohort
of female students, says University of Alberta environmental
engineering professor Daryl McCartney. "Typically, most
engineering departments are around 25 per cent female and 75 per
cent male," he says. "Whereas in environmental engineering,
we're at about 50 per cent already." Rachelle Ormond is an
environmental engineer based in Squamish, B.C., about 65
kilometres north of Vancouver. She chose the field