Mark Milke

University of
Canterbury

New Zealand

M.E. 1984 University of Wisconsin-Madison, PhD 1990 Carnegie Mellon University. During 1990-91, he worked with the County Sanitations Districts of Los Angeles. Since 1991, he has been a full-time Academic at the University of Canterbury.

Mark Milke (MM) has studied, conducted research, and taught in environmental engineering since 1984. His research interests are in solid waste management, groundwater, and uncertainty analysis. He teaches in a wide variety of courses in engineering and environmental science. His solid waste experience began at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with Robert Ham and Morton Barlaz. He has taught Solid Waste Management at Canterbury since 1992. He has worked on solid waste research projects in the U.S., Mexico, and New Zealand, and has published on a wide variety of solid waste topics including methane emissions, leachate treatment, landfill construction, compost modelling, anaerobic digestion, waste composition statistics, phytoremediation, and recycling economics. He is the lead author of the Solid Waste Management chapter in the forthcoming textbook Introduction to Environmental Engineering for Wiley Publishers. He is currently supervising solid waste research into the costs of solid waste management in developing countries, laboratory assessment of anaerobic solid waste degradation, and regional assessment of waste-to-energy for industrial waste generators.

External professional activities:

MM has served as a member of the Landfill Review Group for the NZ Ministry for the Environment, and has provided peer review for a number of governmental projects. In 1998 and 2002, he visited universities in Chile to lecture on solid waste management. He has been an Associate Editor for the international research journal Waste Management since 2002. He is a member of the Peer Review Panel for the Canterbury Regional Landfill working with industry and local government. He has been active in developing sessions and position papers for the IWWG-sponsored Inter-Continental Landfill Research Symposia.

Some recent papers:

  1. Milke, M.W., Riddolls, B., Pinkham, M., & Purdon R.  Peer Review Panel: a New Zealand approach to regulatory compliance of landfills.  Global Waste Management Symposium, Colorado, September 2008, published as CD, 7 p.
  2. Milke, M.W., Wong, V., & McBean E.A.  Describing variability of MSW composition data with the log-logistic distribution.  Waste Management and Research, v. 26, 2008: 355-61.
  3. Qamaruz-Zaman, N. & Milke, M.W.  Laboratory comparison of odour control techniques for separated residential food waste.  Communications in Waste and Resource Management, v. 9, 2008: 18-24.
  4. Milke, M.W.  Editorial: The world’s best solid waste management libraries, Waste Management, v. 28, p. 937-8, 2008.
  5. Qamaruz-zaman, N., Milke, M.W., Improving the anaerobic analysis of solid sample decomposition: preliminary observations. Paper and poster presentation at 11th World Congress on Anaerobic Digestion, Brisbane, September 2007, published as CD, 5 p.
  6. Milke, M.W.  Editorial: Guidelines for Waste Management reviewers, Waste Management, v. 27, p. 727-8, 2007.
  7. Milke, M.W.  Editorial: The alchemist’s dream resource. Waste Management, v. 26, p. 1203-4, 2006.
  8. Milke, M.W., Holman, J., & Khire, M.  Use of gas flux measurements to infer well capture effectiveness.  Fourth Intercontinental Landfill Research Symposium, Gallivare, Sweden, June 2006, p. 138-139.  ISSN: 1402-1536.
  9. *Mason, I.G., & Milke, M.W.  Physical modelling of the composting environment:  a review.  Part 2:  simulation performance.  Waste Management, v. 25, 2005: 501-9.
  10. *Mason, I.G., & Milke, M.W.  Physical modelling of the composting environment:  a review.  Part 1:  reactor systems.  Waste Management, v. 25, 2005: 481-500
  11. *Milke, M.W.  Editorial:  Advice to first-time authors.  Waste Management, v. 25, p. 667-8, 2005.
  12. Milke, M.W.  Litter monitoring body, Ireland’s monitoring system.  Water and Wastes in New Zealand.  March 2005:  p. 30-1.
  13. Milke, M.W.  “Environmental and Health Impacts of Solid Waste Management Activities”, Hester, R.E., and Harrison, R.M., eds., Royal Society of Chemistry, UK, 2002, reviewed in Water and Wastes in New Zealand, March 2005: 32-3.
  14. Mason, I.G., & Milke, M.W.  Current issues in source separation, treatment, and utilisation of food residuals.  Proc. Of WasteMINZ Fifteenth Annual Conference, Nelson, 2003: published as CD.
  15. Vouillamoz, J., & Milke, M.W.  Effect of compost in phytoremediation of diesel-contaminated soils. Water Science and Technology, v43, 2001:291-5.
  16. Milke, M.W.  Stratified sampling and its potential use within the Waste Analysis Protocol.  Proc. of WasteMINZ Thirteenth Annual Conference, Christchurch, 2001: p. 113-21.

Contact information

Mark Milke
Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering
University of Canterbury
Private Bag 4800 Christchurch
New Zealand
Ph 64-3-3642-248
Fax 64-3-3642-758

Email: mark.milke (AT) canterbury.ac.nz
http://www.civil.canterbury.ac.nz/staff/mmilke.asp