A Milestone in Women’s Higher Education at the University at Buffalo

Shannon Seneca recently was awarded a Ph.D. in environmental engineering at the University at Buffalo, part of the State University of New York system. Dr. Seneca is the first Native American woman to earn a Ph.D. from the university’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Dr. Seneca is a member of the Mohawk tribe and was raised near Brantford, Ontario. She earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Buffalo State College in 2001 and a master’s degree in engineering from the University at Buffalo in 2006. She has been conducting research on groundwater contamination at the West Valley nuclear fuel reprocessing center.