Daniel Chang Civil and Environmental Engineering Recipient 1996-1997

In 1994, the Mare Island Naval Shipyard was ordered to close in two years, affecting thousands of workers and threatening the area's economy. Before the city could turn the old base into a new industrial park, contaminated sites had to be cleaned up and new types of industries found to occupy the former shipyard facility.

In response, Professor Chang quickly mobilized UC Davis resources to retrain more than 70 mechanical, civil, electrical and chemical engineers. Through this and existing programs run by University Extension, several hundred other base staff also received training as environmental technicians. Professor Chang's efforts produced a significant contribution to decontamination of the base and a model retraining program for the U.S. Department of Defense. In the process, he helped forge an environmental education partnership to sustain ongoing retraining, risk assessment, environmental cleanup and education efforts. Thanks to his work, the shipyard was named as a national remediation test site for the defense department. He also pursued defense department funds and partners to sustain the educational, environmental and entrepreneurial activities.

To help the former shipyard clean up unanticipated "mixed wastes" at a material re-utilization site, Professor Chang initiated a screening technology and evaluation process to assess the problems and test new solutions. He also has helped launch an ecological risk assessment curriculum in collaboration with Merritt College. The course was piloted by shipyard employees and elements from that curriculum have since been provided to local Restoration Advisory Board members and to Native Americans through D-Q University.