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BACKGROUNDResearch is considered the essence of graduate engineering education, but knowledge about the engineering graduate student research experience is scarce in literature. Some studies that examine graduate engineering education suggest that students are experiencing educational deficiencies that can affect the research experience. Thus, exploring engineering graduate student research proficiency is warranted. PURPOSE (HYPOTHESIS)This work begins to earnestly answer the research questions "How proficient are engineering graduate students in research?" and "What factors affect the research proficiency of these students?" DESIGN/METHODIn order to answer the two research questions specifically for the Georgia Institute of Technology Environmental Engineering graduate program, current students in the program participated in two surveys. Survey questions were designed to measure students' perceptions of their research proficiency and to aid in determining student academic motivations tied to proficiency. RESULTSMany students indicated that they lacked research preparation upon beginning graduate study and during the first year of study, lacked development in important research skills like statistics and communicating in writing, and were somewhat hindered in research organization and progress. Regarding academic motivations, students generally valued personal advancement and enrichment over paper publication. Doctoral students overall indicated more preparation with respect to several aspects of research and more value placed on paper publication than did master's students. CONCLUSIONSThe surveys provided important findings regarding student research proficiency for the engineering graduate program in question. These findings encourage the exploration of engineering graduate student research proficiency on a broader scale in future studies.

Quantifying the remoteness from sources of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) can inform the design of monitoring studies and the interpretation of measurement data. Previous work on quantifying remoteness has not explicitly considered partitioning between the gas phase and aerosols, and between the atmosphere and the Earth's surface. The objective of this study is to present a metric of remoteness for POPs transported through the atmosphere calculated with a global multimedia fate model, BETR-Research. We calculated the remoteness of regions covering the entire globe from emission sources distributed according to light emissions, and taking into account the multimedia partitioning properties of chemicals and using averaged global climate data. Remoteness for hypothetical chemicals with distinct partitioning properties (volatile, semi-volatile, hydrophilic, low-volatility) and having two different half-lives in air (60-day and 2-day) are presented. Differences in remoteness distribution among the hypothetical chemicals are most pronounced in scenarios assuming 60-day half-life in air. In scenarios with a 2-day half-life in air, degradation dominates over wet and dry deposition processes as a pathway for atmospheric removal of all chemicals except the low-volatility chemical. The remoteness distribution of the low-volatility chemical is strongly dependent on assumptions about degradability on atmospheric aerosols. Calculations that considered seasonal variability in temperature, hydroxyl radical concentrations in the atmosphere and global atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns indicate that variability in hydroxyl radical concentrations largely determines the seasonal variability of remoteness. Concentrations of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) measured in tree bark from around the world are more highly correlated with remoteness calculated using our methods than with proximity to human population, and we see considerable potential to apply remoteness calculations for interpretation of monitoring data collected under programs such as the Stockholm Convention Global Monitoring Plan.