Robert Reny
Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
La Kretz Hall, Suite 300
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Robert Reny started his education in Northern Arizona University studying environmental engineering without a very strong sense of what he was passionate about or most interested in. As he learned about environmental problems and their impacts on people and the planet, he became more interested in the broader health implications of environmental issues. This led him to the environmental health science masters’ program at UCLA. During his masters he interned at Orange County Water District and spent time lending his nose in Mel Suffet’s laboratory because, maybe unsurprisingly, the nose is better than anything else for smell detection.
After graduating he went and worked at the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board as a site cleanup engineer investigating parties potentially responsible for the groundwater contamination throughout Los Angeles. Although this work was meaningful it was not exactly what he was most interested in on a day-to-day basis. Suffet encouraged Robert to apply to the environmental science and engineering program, a professional UCLA doctoral program with two-years on campus followed by a long-term residency. He hadn’t originally planned to do more school after a masters but ultimately found the choice to be the correct one. The skills he acquired helped him get hired at the Metropolitan Water District where he now gets to work on applied research projects directly related to climate change and Southern California’s water challenges.
