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Steven S. Cox

Visiting Assistant Professor
Visiting Assistant Professor
Program Area : Environmental and Water Resources Engineering
Professional Registration : Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky
stcox2@vt.edu
(540) 231-9802

Steve Cox is a Research Associate with the Virginia Tech Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering as well as President of GkW Energy, Inc. His research interests are solid- and gas-phase mass-transfer processes and he is currently leading a project to evaluate siloxane adsorption systems with respect to digester gas contaminant removal. He previously worked in the automotive industry for six years and then with an environmental consulting company for four years.

At GkW Energy, Inc. Steve designs, builds, and operates biogas-fueled power generation systems. GkW designed, built, and now operates a 340 kW landfill gas-to-energy process at the Montgomery Regional Solid Waste Authority in Christiansburg, Virginia. This process received the Solid Waste Association of North America's (SWANA) 2010 Silver Award for Landfill Gas Utilization and the USEPA Landfill Methane Outreach Program's (LMOP) Project of the Year for 2010.

Areas of Interest

Air Quality, Renewable Energy, Sustainable Building and Maintenance Practices

  • Ph.D. Civil Engineering, Virginia Tech, 2001
  • M.S. Civil Engineering, University of Louisville, 1993
  • B.S. Chemical Engineering/M.S. Management, Georgia Tech, 1983/1985
  • A.S. General Science, Eastern Kentucky University, 1981
  • Project Engineer, Environmental Resources Management, 1991-1994
  • Engineering Manager, TRW Automotive Division, 1985-1991
  • Recipient of 2010 Project of the Year Award from the USEPA for Landfill Gas Utilization
  • Virginia Tech College of Engineering Teaching Dean’s List
  • Recipient of ERM’s Excellence Award, Air Quality Category
  • CEE 3104 : Introduction to Environmental Engineering
  • CEE 4104 : Water and Wastewater Treatment Design
  • CEE 4144 : Air Resources Engineering
  • CEE 2804 : Introduction to Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Kormuth, K., Lin, K., Prussin, A., Vejerano, E., Tiwari, A, Cox, S.S., Myerburg, M., Lakdawala, S., and Marr, L. "Influenza Virus Infectivity Is Retained in Aerosols and Droplets Independent of Relative Humidity," Journal of Infectious Disease, Vol. 218, 2018, pp. 739-747.
  • Eichler, C.M.A., Wu, Y., Cox, S.S., Klaus, S., and Boardman, G.D. "Evaluation of Sampling Techniques for Gas-Phase Siloxanes in Biogas," Biomass & Bioenergy, Vol. 106, 2018, pp. 1–6.
  • Wu, Y., Eichler, C.M.A., Leng, W., Cox, S.S., Marr, L.C., and Little, J.C. "Adsorption of Phthalates on Impervious Indoor Surfaces," Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 51, 2017, pp. 2907–2913.
  • Wu, Y., Cox, S.S., Xu, Y., Liang, Y., Won, D., Liu, X., Benning, J., Clausen, P., Zhang, Y., Liu, C. and Little, J.C. "A Reference Method for Measuring Emissions of SVOCs in Small Chambers," Building and Environment, Vol. 95, 2016, pp. 126-132.
  • Wu, Y., Cox, S.S., Xie, M., Marr, L.C. and Little, J.C. "A simple method to measure the gas-phase SVOC concentration adjacent to a material surface," Indoor Air, Vol. 26, 2016, 903-912.
  • Ye, W., Cox, S.S., Zhao, X., Frazier, C.E. and Little, J.C. "Partially-irreversible Sorption of Formaldehyde in Five Polymers," Atmospheric Environment, Vol. 99, 2014, pp. 288−297.
  • Howard Reed, C., Liu, Z., Cox, S.S., Leber, D., Samarov, D. and Little, J.C. "Diffusion-controlled Toluene Reference Material for VOC Emissions Testing: International Inter-laboratory Study," Journal Air & Waste Management Association, Vol. 64, No. 4, 2014, pp. 468−480.
  • Liu, Z., Howard Reed, C., Cox, S.S., Ye, W. and Little, J. C. "Diffusion-controlled Reference Material for VOC Emissions Testing: Effect of Temperature and Humidity," Indoor Air, Vol. 24, 2014, pp. 283−291.
  • Liu, Z., Liu, X., Zhao, X., Cox, S.S. and Little, J.C. "Developing a Reference Material for Diffusion-Controlled Formaldehyde Emissions Testing," Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 47, 2013, pp. 12946−12951.
  • Howard-Reed, C., Liu, Z., Benning, J., Cox, S.S., Samarov, D., Leber, D., Hodgson, A., Mason, S., Won, D. and Little, J. C. "Diffusion-Controlled Reference Material for Volatile Organic Compound Emissions Testing: Pilot Inter-laboratory Study," Building and Environment, Vol. 46, 2011, pp. 1504-1511.
  • Cox, S. S., Liu, Z., Little, J. C., Howard-Reed, C., Nabinger, S., and Persily, A. "Diffusion-Controlled Reference Material for VOC Emissions Testing: Proof of Concept," Indoor Air, Vol. 20, No. 5, 2010, pp. 424-433.
  • Herrera-Alonso, J. M., Marand E., Little, J.C., Cox, S.S. "Polymer/Clay Nanocomposites as VOC Barrier Materials and Coatings," Polymer, Vol. 50, 2009, pp. 5744-5748.
  • Herrera-Alonso, J.M., Marand E., Little, J.C., Cox, S.S. "Transport Properties in Polyurethane/Clay Nanocomposites as Barrier Materials: Effect of Processing Conditions," Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 337, 2009, pp. 208-214
  • Zhao, D.Y., Little, J.C. and Cox, S.S. "Characterizing Polyurethane Foam as a Sink for or Source of VOCs in Indoor Air," Journal of Environmental Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 130, 2004, pp. 983-989.
  • Cox, S.S., Little, J.C. and Hodgson, A.T. "Predicting the Emission Rate of Volatile Organic Compounds from Vinyl Flooring," Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 36, 2002, pp. 709-714.
  • Cox, S.S., Little, J.C., Hodgson, A.T. Effect of Glass Transition Temperature on Volatile Emissions from Polymer Materials. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate – Indoor Air 2005; Beijing, China, September 4-9, 2005.
  • Cox, S.S., Hodgson, A.T., Little, J.C. Effect of Ventilation Rate on Contaminant Emission Rates from Diffusion Controlled Materials. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate - Indoor Air 2002; Monterey, California, June 30-July 5, 2002; Vol. 3, pp 196-201.
  • Cox, S.S., Little, J.C., Hodgson, A.T. Predicting the Emission Rate of Volatile Organic Compounds from Vinyl Flooring. Environmental Science and Technology, Vol. 36, 2002, pp 709-714.
  • Cox, S.S., Hodgson, A.T., Little, J.C. Measuring Concentrations of Volatile Organic Compounds in Vinyl Flooring. Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association, Vol. 51, 2001, pp 1195-1201.
  • Cox, S.S., Zhao, D.Y., Little, J.C. Measuring Partition and Diffusion Coefficients of Volatile Organic Compounds in Vinyl Flooring. Atmospheric Environment, Vol. 35, 2001, pp 3823-3830.
  • Cox, S.S., Little, J.C., Hodgson, A.T. A New Method to Predict Emission Rates of Volatile Compounds from Vinyl Flooring. In Proceedings of Healthy Buildings 2000; Espoo, Finland, August 6-10, 2000; pp 169-174.
  • Zhao, D.Y., Cox, S.S., Little, J.C. Source/Sink Characterization of Diffusion Controlled Building Materials, In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate - Indoor Air '99; Edinburgh, Scotland, August 8-13, 1999; Vol. 1, pp 408-413.