Environmental engineering is an academic area of study that trains students to mitigate or remove the waste and pollution produced by manufacturing and other harmful business industries. Individuals who study environmental engineering often go on to careers in government or work for private companies, tackling issues such as recycling systems, water sanitation and waste disposal solutions.

Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia, to the south by Lithuania, to the east by Russia, and to the southeast by Belarus. The Latvians are a Baltic people, culturally related to the Lithuanians. Capital is Riga which is home to University of Latvia with more than 23,000 enrolled students.

The PhD is a doctoral degree, specifically called a "doctor of philosophy" degree. This is misleading because PhD holders are not necessarily philosophers (unless they earned their degree in philosophy!). That said, PhD recipients are able to engage in thought experiments, reason about problems, and solve problems in sophisticated ways.