Research Areas: Environmental microbiology and ecology, biotransformation and fate of environmental and wastewater contaminants, and innovative molecular and isotopic techniques for studying microbial ecology of communities involved in wastewater treatment and bioremediation communities.
Sample Projects: Oxygenase-Catalyzed Biodegradation of Emerging Water Contaminants: 1,4-Dioxane and N-Nitrosodimethylamine; Quantifying Gene Expression to Predict and Optimize Reductive Dechlorination by Dehalococcoides spp.; Application of Microarrays to Identify Biomarkers of Reductive Dehalogenating-Microbial Communities; Using Molecular and Isotopic Tools to Characterize the Biodegradation of Chlorinated Ethenes and Ethanes; and Characterizing the fate and biotransformation of fluorochemicals in aqueous film forming forms (AFFF).
Research Areas: Drinking Water Treatment; Technology Innovation; Technology Maturation for Impact
Sample projects: Arsenic remediation of groundwater used for drinking; Advanced technologies for Capacitive Deionization; Low cost effective remediation of excess fluoride from groundwater used for drinking
Research Areas: Biological water and wastewater treatment processes; biofilms and their development; analysis of full-scale treatment reactors; nutrient control; sustainable development
Sample Projects: Deammonification of anaerobic sludge digestate; Better drinking water quality in storage; Solar optics-based active pasteurization for greywater reuse and integrated thermal building control; Physics of foaming in anaerobic digesters; Sustainable development: physical and moral issues; New sources of water; Toward a definition of sustainability.
Research Areas: Advanced water treatment technology, membrane process, water and wastewater reuse, desalination, environmental nanotechnology, interfacial and transport phenomena
Sample Projects: Graphene-based membranes for water purification; Hybrid membrane systems for enhanced water and energy sustainability; Fundamental understanding of fouling and transport mechanisms in membrane processes
Research Areas: Detection, removal, and inactivation of pathogens in water and sludge; Water reuse; Natural treatment systems; Drinking water and sanitation in developing countries.
Sample Projects: Disinfection of Water by Sunlight; Evaluation of 24×7 versus Intermittent Water Supply in Hubli-Dharwad, India; Tertiary Treatment for Water Reuse; Wastewater Irrigation of Food Crops; and Stormwater Treatment by Bioinfiltration.
Research Areas: infectious disease dynamics in changing environments; environmental and social forcing of vector-borne and waterborne infections; urban epidemiology of environmental pathogens; epidemiology of global environmental change
Sample Projects: Analytical methods for estimating the joint climatological-social drivers of water quality and supply in contrasting tropical zones in Ecuador and China (NSF Water, Sustainability and Climate funded); Public health impacts of drought and climate change in California (UCOP MRPI funded); West Nile Virus, cocci and California’s water resources: exploring relationships between transmission, climate, and hydrology (UCOP MRPI funded); and Effects of agricultural expansion and intensification on the ecology and epidemiology of the waterborne parasite that causes schistosomiasis (NIH EEID funded)
Research Areas: Environmental chemistry, water recycling, contaminant fate in receiving waters, natural treatment systems, reinvention of urban water systems
Sample Projects: The Fate of Trace Organic Compounds in Treatment Wetlands, In Situ Chemical Oxidation of Persistent Organic Contaminants
Research Areas: Industrial waste treatment and water quality, with an emphasis on engineered biological systems. Expertise includes treatment and management of industrial wastewater, including agricultural drainage water. Research experience includes combined physical-biological treatment, treatment wetlands, bioremediation, environmental impact assessment, watershed-scale water quality management, and eutrophication.
Sample Projects: Impact of oil field chemicals on the safe use of produced water for irrigated agriculture; Pre-treatment of non-traditional waters prior to desalinization ;Large-scale groundwater recharge as an alternative to surface storage; Biological degradation of quaternary ammonium compounds and other biocides.