Ruth Richardson
Assistant Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Growing up in the Hudson River Valley, Ruth Richardson began developing her lifelong interest in the outdoors, hiking and backpacking through the woods near her house. As a teenager, she started reading books about wilderness survival and found an ethos for preserving the environment. In a world where one billion people don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water, Ruth Richardson has found her life’s work.
"Until senior year in college, I studied whatever I found intellectually challenging," says Richardson, who came to Cornell after working with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers. "That’s when I realized that most of the traditional jobs for chemical engineers involved working for oil companies or chemical manufacturers, and that didn’t seem like the best use of my chemistry knowledge. The bottom line is that I’m an environmentalist, and I realized I could get that intellectual challenge and still do something that satisfied the humanitarianism that had been building in me."
After arriving in Ithaca in January 2002, she began teaching in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. She is researching bioremediation efforts that use natural organisms to facilitate cleanup and is investigating the use of natural, biologically derived materials to improve water treatment.
"Doing this work was dream number one," says Richardson. "Both of my parents were educated in the sciences, and I was raised with a sense of wonder for the world. I’ve had a love affair with Cornell ever since I was eighteen—the number of faculty members here with an expertise in environmental microbiology is just astounding."
Though she may never realize her other dream—playing professional soccer—she’s happy to have found a new home, balancing work at Cornell with playing midfield in the local co-ed Ithaca soccer league. "When I went out to California for graduate work, I missed the seasons. This is perfect."
