Alison Wood, Ph.D.
Education
Ph.D. Civil Engineering, The University of Texas at AustinM.S. Environmental and Water Resources Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin
B.S. Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rutgers University
A.B. Dramatic Literature, Harvard University
Research
Life cycle costs of sustainable sanitation technologiesCost-effectiveness of nitrogen removal by sustainable sanitation technologies
Applying environmental flow regulations
Software development, specifically Java-based CUAHSI web services client and ODM database
Awards
National Network for Environmental Management Studies FellowshipWalter L. and Reta Mae Moore Graduate Fellowship in Civil Engineering
Trigg & Fannie E. Twichell Centennial Endowed Presidential Scholarship
Engineering Foundation Endowed Graduate Presidential Scholarship
Biography
Dr. Wood is a distinguished researcher in the fields of both water and sanitation, as well as sustainability solutions, through interdisciplinary approaches. Her love of learning was first fostered by an unusual elementary school education that was deeply interdisciplinary with a substantial arts curriculum. After graduating from Harvard University with a B.A. in Dramatic Literature, she worked professionally in theater and wrote and recorded two musical albums. She then returned to school to study engineering, earning a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Rutgers University in 2011. While completing her degree at Rutgers, she wrote and arranged the music and lyrics for a stage musical in collaboration with a Los Angeles based playwright. Dr. Wood went on to earn a Master of Science in Engineering in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. Her love of teaching has grown through fifteen years of private tutoring, three years of teaching summer drama classes to teenagers, and her years as a teaching assistant at UT Austin. She has published research papers in incentivizing decentralized sanitation and wastewater treatment, sustainability analysis of coastal community water and sanitation service options, and automated data acquisition for integrating multiple datasets using GIS applications proceedings.
Select Publications
Wood, A., Blackhurst, M., Garland, J., Lawler, D.F. (2016). Incentivizing Decentralized Sanitation: The Role of Discount Rates. Environmental Science and Technology. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.6b00385Wood, A., Blackhurst, M., Lawler, D.F. (2016). Social Acceptance as a Prerequisite for Social Sustainability. Presentation at Environmental and Water Resources Institute World Environmental & Water Resources Congress. West Palm Beach, FL.
Wood, A., Blackhurst, M., & Lawler, D. (2015). To Sewer or Not to Sewer: Incentivizing Decentralized Wastewater Treatment. Presentation at Environmental and Water Resources Institute World Environmental & Water Resources Congress. Austin, TX.
Personal Website