Dr. Marsolek teaches many of the Environmental Engineering courses in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Program. Classes include Environmental Engineering Chemistry, Principles of Environmental Engineering, and Water and Wastewater Engineering, among others. 

Dr. Marsolek’s research focuses on small-scale wastewater treatment in the developing world, and algal biofuels. Currently he is working on assessment of either a rainwater harvesting or coffee-processing wastewater treatment project near Matagalpa, Nicaragua. He is currently a technical advisor and member of an Engineers Without Borders team, the Mount Everest Biogas Project (http://mteverestbiogasproject.org/), working to install an anaerobic digester at 15,000 feet, to treat human solid waste from climbers.

Algalbiofuels is an exciting drop-in technology to replace conventional fossil fuels. Dr. Marsolek’s focus is on anaerobic digestion of the algal by-product, after all high-value organics are separated. He is additionally studying the effects of residence time and CO₂ concentration on algal yield in a continuous counter current algal bioreactor.