Bringing engineering and public health together

Professor David Gute co-led a panel on "Re-integrating Engineering into Public Health Practice" at the recent Water and Health Conference.
Professor David Gute in his office.

David M. Gute, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, co-led a presentation at the recent Water and Health Conference, put on by the Water Institute at the University of North Carolina (UNC). The focus of the conference was “Where Science Meets Policy.”

In a plenary session titled “Re-integrating Engineering into Public Health Practice,” Professor Gute and co-leader Richard Gelting, the Global WASH Coordinator at Center for Global Health/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), discussed the importance of bridging gaps between engineering and public health careers and education, particularly for students.

Gute and Gelting invited practitioners from CARE, the World Health Organization, the CDC, and students from UNC and Tufts to identify examples of integration between engineering and public health, and to address possibilities and desires for future integration models.

The 2017 UNC Water and Health conference centered on the relationship between public health and global issues around drinking water, hygiene, and water resources.