Biography
Dr. Mulligan specializes in environmental engineering. She has B.Eng. and M. Eng. degrees from the Department of Chemical Engineering, McGill University, Montréal (Québec) and a Ph.D., from the Department of Civil Engineering, at McGill University. After working at McGill and in industry for 16 years, she joined the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering at Concordia University as an Assistant Professor in 1999, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2002 and full professor in 2008. She was awarded the Concordia Research Chair in Environmental Engineering in 2002 (Tier II and then Tier I until 2021).
Catherine Mulligan has B.Eng. and M.Eng. degrees in chemical engineering from McGill University, and a Ph.D. specializing in geoenvironmental engineering, also from McGill University, Montreal, Canada. She has gained more than 40 years of research experience in government, industrial, and academic environments. She has worked for the Biotechnology Research Institute of the National Research Council and SNC Research Corp., a subsidiary of SNC‑Lavalin, Montreal, Canada. She then joined Concordia University, Montreal, Canada in the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering in 1999. She has taught courses in site remediation, environmental engineering, fate and transport of contaminants and geoenvironmental engineering, and she conducts research in remediation of contaminated soils, sediments and water. She held a Concordia Research Chair in Geoenvironmental Sustainability (Tier I) until 2021 and is Full Professor and Distinguished Research Professor. She has authored more than 135 refereed papers in various journals, holds three patents and has supervised to completion more than 75 graduate students.
She is the Director of the Concordia Institute of Water, Energy and Sustainable Systems. The Institute trains students in sustainable development practices and promote research into new systems, technologies and solutions for water, energy and resource conservation. On June 26, 2012, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) announced that Concordia had received $ 1,643,700 in support of research and training via an Institute in Water, Energy and Sustainability. This was the first Concordia project to be awarded funding through NSERC’s Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) program.
Dr. Mulligan is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Canadian Academy of Engineering, Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) and the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering and the winner of the Geoenvironmental Award and the A.G. Stermac Award of the CGS, the John B. Sterling Medal of the EIC, the PEOPLE Award for Career Achievements, ASTM editorial award and several Concordia awards (the Provost Circle of Distinction, Concordia Sustainability Champion, Petro Canada Young Innovator Award (twice)).
Professional affiliations
- Order of Engineers of Quebec
- Professional Engineers Ontario
- Canadian Society of Civil Engineering (Past President, Honours and Fellows Committee member, former chair of Environmental Division and Sustainable Development Committee)
- Canadian Geotechnical Society (former chair Sustainable Geotechnic Committee and VP Communications)
- Canadian Society of Chemical Engineering
- American Society of Civil Engineers
- International Water Association
- Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM)
- ISSMGE, TC 215 Environmental Geotechnics Committee member and TC 307, Sustainability in Geotechnical Engineering, Corresponding member)
- ASTM (D18 and E5 committee member)
- Section Editor, Journal of Environmental Engineering (Frontiers), Environmental Impact Assessment (2022- )
- Chief Editor, Waste, Journal of MDPI (2023- )
- Editorial Board Member, Water MDPI (2021-)
- Editorial Board Member, Engineering, Remediation, Restoration Section of Toxics (2023- )
- Editorial Board Member, Journal of Environmental Engineering and Science (2018-)
- Editorial Board Member, Environmental Geotechnics (2013-)
- Advisory Board Member, Korean Journal of Civil Engineering (2023-)
Research
- Biosurfactant treatment of contaminated soils, wastes and sediments and water
- Treatment and management of metal-contaminated soils, sediments and mining wastes
- Bioremediation of hydrocarbons
- Removal of nutrients via annamox processes
- In situ processes for management of surface water and contaminated sediment
- Anaerobic treatment of wastewater
- Energy from pressure reduced osmosis (PRO)
- Treatment by membranes of wastewaters
- Development of sustainability indicators
