Glen Daigger’s journey from pig farm to pioneering environmental engineering solutions

Glen Daigger (BSCE ’73, MSCE ’75, PhD ’79) often jokes that he was always meant to work in the waste management industry.

“I had a lot of personal exposure to waste, growing up on a pig farm just outside Battle Ground, Indiana,” said Daigger, professor of engineering practice in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Michigan. The Daigger family farm was located on land that is now part of Prophetstown State Park, just eight miles northwest of Purdue University.

“A farm is a great place to grow up because you learn how to build things, how to fix things, how to be resourceful,” he said. “You also learn responsibility at an early age because there are always farm chores to be done. I appreciated my childhood growing up on the pig farm, but I was always aspiring to be part of the broader world.”

Although neither of his parents had a formal education, they encouraged Daigger’s aptitude for school, particularly math and science, and supported his ambition to attend university. Daigger earned straight As and was valedictorian of the second-to-last graduating class of Battle Ground High School. His academic counselor encouraged him to pursue a degree in engineering.

“Purdue was right up the road with a superior engineering program,” Daigger said. “That sounded good to me. My cousin Marc Gill (BSCE ’68) was a civil engineer and the things civil engineers did seemed to make sense to me. So that’s where I started, and that’s where I found a home.”

In his first environmental engineering class, Daigger recognized the field offered the right blend of science, problem-solving and technical skills that interested him. Over his 45-year career, he’s become an internationally recognized expert in wastewater treatment and water quality management for municipal and industrial systems, with particular expertise in biological processes.

“I enjoy the diversity of sciences that form the foundation of environmental engineering,” Daigger said. “We use physical, chemical and biological sciences in our work. Science is extremely reliable knowledge, but it is incomplete. General knowledge and experience with what works and what doesn’t work is also essential to environmental engineers. We build on the science with empirical knowledge to find solutions to the problems we need to solve.”

The environmental movement was at the forefront of public consciousness during the decade Daigger was studying at Purdue. The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970, and the Environmental Protection Agency was established on December 2, 1970. Both were in response to growing concerns about air and water pollution.

“Purdue had an outstanding environmental engineering program at a time when I was educated, and qualified environmental engineers were lacking,” Daigger said. “Purdue was well-known for the Purdue Industrial Waste Conference, which was an essential resource for the science and practice of environmental engineering for decades. That’s where all the experts were. That’s where you learned about new developments. It created quite a community, not only within environmental engineering at Purdue, but the broader environmental engineering community nationally and internationally.”

After earning his PhD, Daigger accepted an offer at CH2M Hill, an environmental engineering firm then headquartered in Corvalis, Oregon. Although Daigger only intended to work there for a few years, he ended up staying for 35, rising to the role of senior vice president and chief technology officer while the company grew to become the largest civil and environmental engineering consultancy in the country. It was acquired by Jacobs Engineering Group in 2017.

In 2015, Daigger joined the faculty at the University of Michigan where he advises graduate students while also maintaining his own engineering practice. He and his wife, Patricia, founded One Water Solutions, a water engineering and innovation firm.

“I’m the minority owner,” Daigger said. “Patty owns 51% of the company. We got married as I was starting my second year in graduate school, so we’ve been on this journey together for 50 years.”

As a professor, Daigger reflects on his own experiences as he mentors students embarking on their own journeys.

“As environmental engineers, we have the opportunity to make the world a better place,” he said. “We used to have burning rivers and dramatically degraded ecosystems. When I look back on everything we’ve accomplished, I see our ability to meet these challenges and make progress in terms of addressing them, but there will always be new problems to solve.”