R. Joseph “Joe” Fiacco, Jr.
Joe was an outstanding undergraduate student, receiving a Vermont Geological Society research award for his work with two engineering classmates to study the influence of different types of bedrock on groundwater chemistry. As a result of some serious advance planning, Joe spent his final undergraduate semester (1989) at Dartmouth College before moving on to graduate school at the University of New Hampshire. His thesis there was based on cores in the Greenland ice sheet, and was titled Microparticles as a Paleovolcanic Indicator in the 1989 GISP2 Firn and Ice Core.
I attribute my current career success … to my primary faculty who provided me with a sound academic foundation.
~ Joe Fiacco
After grad school, Joe spent time in the US Army as “a chemical officer — nuclear, biological and chemical warfare plus smoke and flame,” two years that fortuitously included 15 months on the volcanic rocks of Hawaii.
He entered the environmental consulting field with Weston and Sampson Engineers in Peabody, Mass., where he focused on characterization of landfill leachate plumes. For the last 10 years, Joe has worked for Environmental Resources Management (ERM), the world’s largest all environmental consulting firm. While at ERM, Joe has been involved with site investigation and remediation projects on six continents, including travel to Belgium, Germany, France, and South Africa. He served as the branch manager of ERM’s Boston office for three years and was selected as one of ERM’s youngest partners.
Joe spends much of his time these days providing regional/national/international technical support, his areas of expertise being chlorinated solvent investigation/remediation, and bedrock investigation/remediation He notes “I wish I had taken structural geology,” which fortunately is required now. Joe’s main focus is on identifying new approaches/technologies coming out of academia and figuring out how to apply them in a commercially viable manner. He has published numerous conference proceedings papers, co-authored articles in peer reviewed journals, and presented papers at conferences in the US, Canada, France, and South Africa.
