Rate My Professor John Little

John Little is the Charles E. Via, Jr. Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and a master’s degree in physical chemistry from the University of Cape Town in South Africa, along with a master’s degree and Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Little has advanced environmental engineering research at Virginia Tech, holding the Via Professorship since 2012 and receiving reappointment in 2018 for research excellence. His work has brought significant visibility to the institution through studies on mass transfer processes in environmental systems.

Little’s research contributions include pioneering models for indoor environmental quality, such as emissions of volatile organic compounds from building materials in 'Modeling emissions of volatile organic compounds from new carpets' (Atmospheric Environment, 1994) and semivolatile organic compounds in 'Predicting emissions of SVOCs from polymeric materials and their interaction with airborne particles' (Environmental Science & Technology, 2006), as well as lake and reservoir oxygenation systems in 'Designing hypolimnetic aeration and oxygenation systems – a review' (Environmental Science & Technology, 2006). He has published approximately 140 peer-reviewed papers, collaborated internationally with researchers in China, Switzerland, Taiwan, Australia, and Spain, and contributed to over $12.8 million in funded research with a personal share of $4.9 million. Currently, he addresses Anthropocene societal challenges like climate change, renewable energy, adaptive infrastructure, disasters, pandemics, food insecurity, biodiversity loss, sustainable development, resilience, and equity using a system-of-systems convergence paradigm. He co-leads the $3.6 million NSF-funded Convergent Anthropocene Systems initiative focused on the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Awards include the NSF CAREER Award in 1996 and Fellowship of the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate. Little has advised 11 Ph.D. students, seven postdoctoral scholars, and 22 master’s students, and directed interdisciplinary programs such as the NSF IGERT award. He has served as a visiting professor at National Cheng Kung University, Eawag, Tsinghua University, University of Granada, University of Sydney, CSTB, and University of La Rochelle.