Lauren Kennedy
Name: Lauren Kennedy
Advisor: Kara Nelson
Department: Civil and Environmental Engineering
WHERE DID YOU DO YOUR UNDERGRAD/MASTERS AND WHY DID YOU CHOOSE UC BERKELEY?
I received my Bachelor’s degree from Purdue University in Environmental and Ecological Engineering. During that process, I completed research in atmospheric chemistry, materials engineering, and water chemistry. Those experiences helped me realize that I wanted to go to graduate school, that I wanted to find a collaborative lab group, and that I was still unsure of the research topic I wanted to pursue. When I visited UC Berkeley, I met current graduate students who I could picture myself working with and I learned more about research in Kara’s lab that interested me, which ultimately led to my decision. I then received my Master’s from UC Berkeley.
WHAT KIND OF RESEARCH GETS YOU UP IN THE MORNING?
I am excited about research that is intellectually stimulating but also applied. If I feel like what I am doing is a puzzle with a solution that could benefit people, I am up and ready to start thinking!
IF YOU COULD MAKE A GROUNDBREAKING DISCOVERY OR CHANGE A SYSTEM IN THE WORLD OF WATER RESEARCH, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Since around April 2020, I have been working on the COVID-19 wastewater-based epidemiology for the bay area (Covid-WEB) project. The Covid-WEB pop-up laboratory is monitoring wastewater from around the San Francisco Bay Area to track SARS-CoV-2 in the contributing population. Monitoring SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater may facilitate public health response to COVID-19 outbreaks potentially by providing early warning of outbreaks compared to clinical incidence data and by providing insight into asymptomatic and symptomatic cases. However, both the methodological research for and the application of this method have been occurring simultaneously, and more research and development can make the results even more useful to public health officials. I think it would help to discover exactly how the signal we see in wastewater relates to the true COVID-19 prevalence or incidence and how to account for background noise that can obscure the signal. Many researchers are investigating these questions now, and we seem to gain more clarity each day!
WHAT’S THE MOST EXCITING CHALLENGE YOU’VE TACKLED WHILE STUDYING AT UC BERKELEY?
The most exciting challenge I have tackled was figuring out how to simulate a direct potable reuse drinking water distribution system. I helped design pipe loop rigs that could circulate 100 L of water and could also be sampled for biofilm. As part of this team, I learned that simulating a treated drinking water augmentation system successfully is challenging, but we learned a lot from this process that we are hoping to detail in a publication soon to help others design similar experiments.
WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN 10 YEARS?
I see myself still involved in research and potentially with my own research group. If I stay in academia, I aspire to be challenging the status quo and both learning from and serving as a mentor to students, particularly others figuring out the world of higher education and academia as they progress!
Lauren Kennedy
Name: Lauren Kennedy
Advisor: Kara Nelson
Department: Civil and Environmental Engineering
WHERE DID YOU DO YOUR UNDERGRAD/MASTERS AND WHY DID YOU CHOOSE UC BERKELEY?
I received my Bachelor’s degree from Purdue University in Environmental and Ecological Engineering. During that process, I completed research in atmospheric chemistry, materials engineering, and water chemistry. Those experiences helped me realize that I wanted to go to graduate school, that I wanted to find a collaborative lab group, and that I was still unsure of the research topic I wanted to pursue. When I visited UC Berkeley, I met current graduate students who I could picture myself working with and I learned more about research in Kara’s lab that interested me, which ultimately led to my decision. I then received my Master’s from UC Berkeley.
WHAT KIND OF RESEARCH GETS YOU UP IN THE MORNING?
I am excited about research that is intellectually stimulating but also applied. If I feel like what I am doing is a puzzle with a solution that could benefit people, I am up and ready to start thinking!
IF YOU COULD MAKE A GROUNDBREAKING DISCOVERY OR CHANGE A SYSTEM IN THE WORLD OF WATER RESEARCH, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Since around April 2020, I have been working on the COVID-19 wastewater-based epidemiology for the bay area (Covid-WEB) project. The Covid-WEB pop-up laboratory is monitoring wastewater from around the San Francisco Bay Area to track SARS-CoV-2 in the contributing population. Monitoring SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater may facilitate public health response to COVID-19 outbreaks potentially by providing early warning of outbreaks compared to clinical incidence data and by providing insight into asymptomatic and symptomatic cases. However, both the methodological research for and the application of this method have been occurring simultaneously, and more research and development can make the results even more useful to public health officials. I think it would help to discover exactly how the signal we see in wastewater relates to the true COVID-19 prevalence or incidence and how to account for background noise that can obscure the signal. Many researchers are investigating these questions now, and we seem to gain more clarity each day!
WHAT’S THE MOST EXCITING CHALLENGE YOU’VE TACKLED WHILE STUDYING AT UC BERKELEY?
The most exciting challenge I have tackled was figuring out how to simulate a direct potable reuse drinking water distribution system. I helped design pipe loop rigs that could circulate 100 L of water and could also be sampled for biofilm. As part of this team, I learned that simulating a treated drinking water augmentation system successfully is challenging, but we learned a lot from this process that we are hoping to detail in a publication soon to help others design similar experiments.
WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN 10 YEARS?
I see myself still involved in research and potentially with my own research group. If I stay in academia, I aspire to be challenging the status quo and both learning from and serving as a mentor to students, particularly others figuring out the world of higher education and academia as they progress!