David Kosson | AIChE

David Kosson

Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Engineering
Vanderbilt University

David S. Kosson is Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Engineering at Vanderbilt University, where he has appointments as Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Earth and Environmental Sciences.  Professor Kosson also is the Principal Investigator for the multi-university Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (www.CRESP.org), supported by the Department of Energy to improve the risk-informed  basis for remediation and management of nuclear waste from former defense materials production and nuclear energy.  Professor Kosson’s research focuses on management of nuclear, energy production and industrial wastes, including process development and contaminant mass transfer applied to groundwater, soil, sediment, waste and cementitious materials systems.  Dr. Kosson in collaboration with other Vanderbilt researchers, U.S. EPA and the Energy Research Centre of The Netherlands has developed the Leaching Environmental Assessment Framework (LEAF) for understanding the release of contaminants from wastes and construction materials under a wide range of use and disposal scenarios (www.vanderbilt.edu/Leaching). 

Dr. Kosson leads the Cementitious Barriers Partnership (www.CementBarriers.org) which is a multi-institution initiative focused on developing advanced tools for predicting the long-term performance of cementitious materials in nuclear applications.  Professor Kosson has participated in or led many external technical reviews on nuclear waste processing for the Department of Energy including for tank wastes and a range of technology approaches at Hanford, Savannah River and Idaho sites. Dr. Kosson served as a member of U.S. DOE Secretary Chu’s team to address design challenges associated with the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant.  Professor Kosson also has provided expertise and leadership for the National Academies, and as advisory to the Department of Defense, for two decades on demilitarization of chemical weapons in the United States and abroad. Professor Kosson has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed professional journal articles, book, book chapters and other archival publications. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering from Rutgers University, where he subsequently was Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering.