Melanie Sattler, Ph.D., P.E.

Dr. Melanie Sattler is currently serving as Department Chair for Civil Engineering. She previously served as Associate Department Chair, Advisor for the Sustainable Engineering Minor, and Civil Engineering Graduate Advisor.

Dr. Sattler's teaching interests include sustainable engineering, air quality, and solid waste management. She engages students via experiential learning (service-learning and class projects). Dr. Sattler led development of UTA's Sustainable Engineering Minor and has supervised 46 students completing their senior design project for the minor. In her 21 years at UTA, she is proud to have graduated 26 master’s thesis and 32 Ph.D. students, who now hold responsible positions in consulting, industry, government, and academia.

Her current research focuses on sustainable energy from waste (biogas from anaerobic digestion and landfill gas) and life cycle environmental analysis. She and her students have completed over $6.5 in research projects sponsored by entities such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, National Science Foundation, and City of Arlington. She and her students have authored over 300 publications/presentations, including over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, over 200 conference presentations/papers/posters, and over 40 reports.

Prior to joining UTA, she worked in environmental positions in consulting (Alan Plummer Associates, one and a half years) and local government (North Central Texas Council of Governments, 5 years). She received her Ph.D. in environmental engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and is a registered professional engineer in the state of Texas.