Jeanette A. Brown, P.E., D.WRE, BCEE, F.ASCE, F.WEF, currently a research assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Manhattan College, has been honored by ASCE with inclusion in its 2019 class of Distinguished Members for exemplifying the role of the engineer in society through mentoring, research, leadership in multiple organizations, services, and encouragement to others to similarly serve and develop professionally.
Brown teaches graduate and undergraduate courses at Manhattan College. She has achieved eminence in the field through her passionate spreading of the concerns around environmental engineering. This includes exhorting students and others she works with to pursue their professional certification and continue professional development.
She was previously executive director for the Stamford Water Pollution Control Authority (SWPCA), in Connecticut. Most notable among the significant improvements her research helped bring to wastewater treatment was the “Stamford Baffle” for secondary clarifiers. This technology has been incorporated into the design of clarifiers throughout the United States as well as other countries. Brown also showed through in-plant research that secondary treatment plants could be modified at little or no capital cost to remove considerable amounts of nitrogen. Additionally, she introduced the concept of gasification of dried wastewater residuals and proved its efficacy as an alternate solids disposal technology.
Brown’s service to ASCE started when she served as secretary of the Water Pollution Management Committee in 1991 and as its vice chair the following year. She was then chair of the Sludge Management Technical Committee beginning in 1992, technical co-chair of the Montreal EED Conference in 1993, Steering Committee member of the Boulder, CO, EED Conference in 1994, and a principal contributing author for the Conveyance of Water and Wastewater Residuals monograph in 1999. She was chair of the Wastewater and Stormwater subcommittee of the Wastewater Infrastructure Security Standards Committee, 2002-present, serving too on the National Water Policy Board and Report Card Advisory Council. She was Presidential Appointee to the EWRI Governing Board, and became EWRI president in 2008. She is currently a member of the EWRI Residuals Management Committee. She is also on the Board of the Water Research Foundation, and a member of the WEFTEC Program Committee. She was the first woman president of EWRI and the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (AAEES). She also served as president of the Water Environment Federation (WEF).
She is a Board-certified Environmental Engineer through AAEES and a Diplomate in the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers. A registered professional engineer in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, she is also a Fellow of ASCE and WEF. She has received numerous awards and recognitions, including ASCE’s State-of-the-Art Award, the CT Governor’s Environment 2000 Award for contributions to improving the water quality of Long Island Sound, the Cleary Award (AAEES, 2008), the Distinguished Career Award (Manhattan College, 2011), EWRI’s Service to the Institute (ASCE/EWRI, 2012), and EWRI’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2018).
Brown is an authority on biological nitrogen removal in wastewater treatment plants and biosolids treatment and management, and has published and presented many papers globally on these topics. She has been contributing author on many Manuals of Practice for both WEF and ASCE.
