Combining their respective expertise in chemistry and mechanical engineering, the directors of the Center for the Study of Combustion and the Environment (CSCE) study the formation, transport, and eventual fate of combustible emissions. Chartered in April 1997, CSCE focuses its research on how industrial sites can contribute to improving the Earth's air and water by controlling combustible emissions. 

Many environmental problems are attributed to combustion. Acid rain develops from sulfur dioxide, which results from coal-burning and cement-production emissions; nitrous oxide from all forms of combustion; and hydrochloric acid from waste incineration. Smog and tropospheric ozone arise from nitrous oxide and hydrocarbons. Air toxins result from dioxins and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons. Carbon dioxide and methane (recently found to form in great quantities from biomass bnrning) produce greenhouse gases. 

CSCE researchers are studying problems that emerge from these types of combustion. One project involves the study of chemicals that fall from the sky into the waters of Maryland's Chesapeake Bay. The center's interdisciplinary structure enables it to tackle the range of problems that flow from the existence of numerous burning sites around a huge waterway such as the Chesapeake.