In this rapidly changing and increasingly competitive technological world, graduate degrees are highly desirable and most often master's degrees are required to hold higher-level professional environmental engineering positions in the industry, and in federal, state and municipal government agencies. The department's graduate programs are designed to educate the technological leaders of the future in environmental engineering, and are structured to accommodate both full-time and part-time students. The specialty areas in environmental engineering include water quality, water and wastewater treatment, hydrologic processes, water resources, environmental engineering microbiology, air quality, hazardous and solid waste, biofuels, nutrient cycling, and pollution prevention. A distance learning master's degree programs in Environmental Engineering is also available.