Kent S. Sorenson, Jr. is the Applied Research Director for North Wind Environmental, Inc. He is an environmental engineer specializing in the application of innovative technologies for groundwater remediation. Dr. Sorenson’s current work focuses on natural attenuation and enhanced bioremediation of chlorinated solvents in groundwater, including aspects of microbiology, hydrogeology, and geochemistry. He also has several years’ experience in aquifer characterization. In a significant example of the bridging of research and applications, Dr. Sorenson recently conducted one of the largest field evaluations of enhanced reductive of chlorinated ethenes in the world and the only one in deep, fractured rock. This work has led to the filing of a patent application for a technique that greatly increases bioavailability of chlorinated solvents during bioremediation. He is now implementing bioremediation at several sites around the country for a variety of customers. Dr. Sorenson’s ongoing research includes manipulating the microbial ecology in bioremediation systems to favor organisms that degrade the target contaminants, and on further developing the enhanced bioavailability technique. In related work, he has been studying the long-term fate of trichloroethene under aerobic conditions and has presented data suggesting this compound is being degraded relative to the co﷓contaminants tetrachloroethene and tritium. Dr. Sorenson received his Ph.D. under the supervision of Dr. Roger Ely (now at Yale University) in Civil Engineering from the University of Idaho. He holds a master’s degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tulane University.

Email address: ksorenson@nwindenv.com