IN THE NEWS: PROFILES
CASTING FOR ANSWERS
No matter what the project, Taylor Eighmy is immersed in science
by Suki Casanave
Taylor Eighmy has a dozen fishing flies scattered in his open palm. Blue-wing olive, March brown, pale morning dun--each one has a different story.
"See this?" he asks, holding a giant grey mayfly between his thumb and forefinger. The two tail fibers, clear and fine, are nearly invisible against the light. "Trout are smart," Eighmy says. "If you have the wrong number of fibers for the tail, they won't bite."
That's part of the joy of fly fishing, according to Eighmy, research associate professor in civil engineering. There's a science to it. You've got to consider the river itself, where you're standing, the season, the time of day, the particular fly--even the perspective of the fish.
The goal is simple: get the fish to bite. But the method is complex, at once deliberate and intuitive. "Catching a fish is like designing a successful experiment," Eighmy says. "Both involve the notion of figuring things out. And for me, they both provide the same joy."
Eighmy's research, which combines his love for biology with his interest in applied engineering, has focused on finding solutions to a broad range of environmental problems, from drinking water treatment to municipal solid waste disposal. One current project involves stabilizing hazardous waste headed for landfills by mixing it with phosphate to produce compounds that won't leach into the water supply.
Another project is aimed at transforming mountains of industrial waste--4.5 billion pounds are generated each year--into roads. Eighmy and his colleagues are concocting environmentally safe recipes that reuse waste--blast-furnace slags, ash, contaminated sediments, construction debris--as paving material, easing the strain on landfills and preserving valuable natural resources typically used in road construction.
No matter what the project, Eighmy finds that, like fly fishing, research is best undertaken with friends and colleagues. "Science isn't just about solutions," he says. "It's about working collaboratively. And it's interdisciplinary." That vision of science as a collaborative process is demonstrated by the more than 75 co-author names on Eighmy's many publications.
Collaboration is also the driving force behind UNH's Environmental Research Group (ERG), which Eighmy helped establish in 1987. ERG is designed to foster interdisciplinary relationships among researchers, encouraging better solutions to pressing environmental problems. "It has also allowed us to be aggressive in marketing our expertise to federal agencies and the private sector," says Eighmy, "and to pursue large federal initiatives that demand cohesive, coordinated effort." Eighmy's ability to organize researchers, both within and outside of UNH, has produced some remarkable research initiatives, collaborations, and institutions, according to Tom Ballestero, chair of the civil engineering department. "In particular, it is through his tireless efforts that ERG was created, and to him it owes much of its success."
A decade after its founding, ERG is embarking on plans that include participation in an $8.5-million environmental technology building, a place designed to promote innovative collaboration between industry and academia. "This is the future of the private sector-university relationship," says Eighmy, "applied research that involves working closely with the private sector. The new building means we can all be in one place, and it will provide a real magnet to attract industry sponsors and state-of-the-art equipment."
As he looks ahead at the possibilities, Eighmy sees more projects, more collaboration, more good science. "The larger goal," he says, "is greater sustainability, more connected thinking, greater regard for our environment." Every project Eighmy undertakes is a step toward this goal, each success as satisfying as the graceful curve of a well-cast line on an early-morning river.
SNAPSHOT
B.S., Biology, Tufts University, 1980 M.S., Civil Enginneering, UNH, 1983 Ph.D., Environmental Engineering, UNH, 1986
Research: Waste characterization, surface spectroscopy, leaching modeling, waste utilization
Outtake: Eighmy loves sailing with his wife, Nancy Kinner, and their dogs Skipper and Spinnaker.