de los Reyes People

Current Researchers and Students

  • Sivaranjani Palani (PhD student) – Thermodynamic Modeling of Anaerobic Systems
  • Savanna Smith (PhD student) – Microbial Community Assembly of Anaerobic Systems
  • Joseph Weaver (PhD student)- Microbial Flocs, Bioreactor Modeling
  • Yi-Chun Lai (PhD student) – Microalgae Harvesting
  • Amanda Karam (PhD student) – Photosynthetic Bioreactors
  • Amanda Mattingly (MS student) – Bioaugmentation of Paper Mill Wastewater Treatment Ponds
  • Anthony Young (MS student)- Partial Denitrification/Anammox
  • Emma Guertin (MS student) – Anaerobic Food Waste Degradation
  • Seraphim Falterman (MS student) – Thermal Hydrolysis and Anaerobic Co-Digestion
  • Monica Matekenye (MS student) – Biomass Conversion in Malawi
  • Tate Rogers, MS (Consultant) – Hygienic and Effective Pit Emptying Using a Modified Screw Auger
  • Walt Beckham (Research Technician) – Hygienic and Effective Pit Emptying
  • Jocelyn Tsai (MS) Project Coordinator, Hygienic and Pit Emptying, Global WaSH Support
  • Alvin Mutongi (UG student) – Techno-Economic Analysis of Anaerobic Co-Digestion

Alumni

Postdocs and Visiting Professors

  • Ling Wang (Postdoc, University of Chicago) – Microbial community analysis
  • Xia He (Prof., Guilin Univ., China) – Processes in Sewer Systems
  • Nathan Alcantara (MS, visiting student) – Microbial communities in pitcher plants
  • Abdul Haq (MS, visiting student) – Microbial communities in anaerobic digestion of Jatropha
  • Peihong Shen (Prof., Guanxi Univ., China) – Startup of Anaerobic Reactors
  • Pascal Saikaly (currently Asst. Professor, King Abdullah Univ. of Science and Technology)
  • Kristin Hicks (currently with Central Carolina Colleges)
  • Shaohui Zhang (currently Assoc. Professor, Wuhan University of Technology)

PhD students

  • In Chio Lou (Ph.D. 2006, currently Assistant Professor, University of Macau) – Analysis of the Factors in the Competition between Filaments and Floc-formers in Activated Sludge
  • Cesar Mota (Ph.D. 2006, currently Professor Adjunto, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais) – Microbial Ecology of Intermittently Aerated Reactors Treating Swine Wastewater: Molecular Approaches for Identifying Key Nitrogen-Removing Bacteria
  • Bryan Staley (Ph.D. 2009, currently President of Environmental Research and Education Foundation) – Evaluation of Factors Affecting the Initiation of Methanogenesis in Solid Waste
  • Xia He (Ph.D. 2012, currently Assistant Professor, Guilin University, China) –Fats, Oils, and Grease (FOG) Deposit Formation: Characterization of Grease Interceptors and Elucidation of Formation Mechanisms
  • Ling Wang (Ph.D. 2018, currently Postdoc, University of Chicago) – Microbial Ecology and Modeling of Resilient Anaerobic Co-Digesters

MS Students

  • Julia E. Keith (Dec. 2002) – Molecular Characterization of Microbial Populations in Full-Scale Activated Sludge Plants and Bioaugmentation Sites
  • Jiangying Liao (May 2003) –Quantifying Activated Sludge Bulking-Causing Filaments using Molecular Methods
  • Jon C. Williams (Dec. 2004) – Initial Investigations of Aerobic Granulation in an Annular Gap Bioreactor
  • Gamze Gulez (May 2005) – Effects of Carbon and Inoculum Sources on the Growth of Filamentous Bacteria in Activated Sludge
  • Matthew B. Skidmore (Dec. 2005) – Predicting and Improving the Dewaterability of Waste Activated Sludge Through Moisture Distribution Analysis
  • Vivi L. Nguyen (Aug. 2007) – Quantifying In Situ Growth Rates of Filaments and Floc-formers using Real-time PCR
  • Lauren Wellborn (May 2009) – Assessment of Water and Sanitation in Philippine Villages
  • Mariann Z. Vazques-Pineiro (Aug. 2010) – Performance of an Onsite Wastewater Treatment System and Analysis of the Microbial Populations in the Wastewater
  • Rossana Prevost  (Dec. 2010) – Aerosolization and Quantification of Surrogate Biological Warfare Agents under Simulated Landfill Conditions
  • Bahareh Karami (May 2012) – Effect of Shear Variability on Formation of Aerobic Granules
  • Ling Wang (July 2012) – Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Thickened Waste Activated Sludge with Grease Interceptor Waste
  • Kara N. Kopf (December 2012) – Quantification of Denitrification nosZ Genes in Activated Sludge
  • F. Jim Hurley (January 2013) –  Effects of Kenaf on Activated Sludge Performance and Microbiology
  • M. Jason Ho (January 2013) – Linking Community Structure and Function Using Novel Sequential mRNA Fluorescence Hybridization and Flow Cytometry
  • Jory Wahlen (May 2013) – Using Molecular Microbial Data for Microbial Risk Assessment of Graywater Reuse
  • Elvin Hossein (August 2013) – Resilience of Bioreactors for Anaerobic Energy Production
  • Dominic Libera (December 2013) – Simulation of Vomiting as a Mechanism for Spread of Norovirus
  • Amanda Karam (December 2016) – Development of Microspheres for Assessing Light Exposure in PSBRs
  • Jacqueline Yeh (May 2018) – Effect of varying hydrodynamic shear and extracellular polymeric substances on aerobic granulation
  • Giovanna Portiolli (August 2019) – Collection of Fecal Sludge and Anaerobic Treatment of Household Wastes
  • Eric Polli (August 2019) – Mainstream Deammonification of Municipal Wastewater

 

MCE/MENE Reports Directed

  • Walt Fletcher (Dec. 2002) – Modeling the Competition between Filaments and Floc Formers in Activated Sludge
  • JuChun Hsieh (Dec. 2005) – Floc Development in Couette Bioreactors
  • Laurissa Hoyle (May 2006) – Investigating Steam Application for Reducing Foaming in Activated Sludge Systems
  • Hyunsuk Hong (May 2009) – Aerobic Granulation using Couette-Taylor Bioreactors for Simultaneous Organic Carbon and Nitrogen Removal
  • Tracey Sisco (May 2015) – Testing Pit Emptying Mixers
  • Aditi Murthy (May 2015) – Microbiological Analysis of Full-Scale WWTP Startup
  • Qian Wang (post MS) – Aerobic Granulation
  • Catherine MacMillan (May 2016) – Photosynthetic Bioreactors
  • Brita Mjos (May 2017) – Fertilizer from Urine
  • Eunyoung Lee (Dec. 2017) – Anaerobic Degradation of Food Waste
  • Samiron Dutta (August 2019) – Modeling of Anammox Filters
  • Pradnya Latkar (December 2020)  – Fuzzy set QCA of Community Toilet Blocks in Mumbai, India

Undergraduates (last 5 years)

  • Zach Bennett (BS ENE, Fall 2020 -)
    Project: WWTP COVID19 Surveillance Sample Collection
  • Laura Gomez (BS BE, Fall 2020)
    Project: WWTP COVID19 Surveillance Sample Collection
  • Daniel Cockson (BS IE, Fall 2020 – )
    Project: WWTP COVID19 Surveillance Sample Collection
  • Jeremy Lowe (BS ENE, Fall 2020 – )
    Project: WWTP COVID19 Surveillance Sample Collection
  • Victoria Ponthier (BS ENE, Fall 2020 – )
    Project: WWTP COVID19 Surveillance Sample Collection
  • Emma Bolden (BS ENE, Fall 2020)
    Project: WWTP COVID19 Surveillance Sample Collection
  • Alvin Mutongi (BS Civil Engineering, Summer 2020)
    Project: RISE – Techno-economic analysis of anaerobic co-digestion of FOG wastes
  • Robert Mones (HS Senior, NC School of Science and Math, Summer 2019 – Fall 2019)
    Project: Drone for Water Quality Sampling
  • Annelise Gummere (B.S. Environmental Eng., Summer-Fall 2019)
    Project: Filaments in activated sludge
  • Yashira Valentin Feliciano (Summer 2019, RISE Program)
    Project: DNA analysis of Malawi pit samples
  • *Haley Zamorano (B.S. Environmental Eng., Spring-Fall 2019 – )
    Project: Design of composting toilet
  • Sydney Allen (B.S. Environmental Eng., Fall 2018- Summer 2019)
    Project: Support for anaerobic experiments
  • Luke Solari (B.S. Civil Engineering, Fall 2018- Summer 2019)
    Project: Hydrodynamic cavitation for dewatering sludge
  • Hannah Cruz (HS Student, NC School of Science and Mathematics, Summer 2018-Fall 2018)
    Project: Modeling transport of fecal sludge
  • Maggie Thompson (B.S. Civil Engineering, Summer 2018)
    Project: Hydrodynamic cavitation for fecal sludge
  • Maddy Hanton (B.S. Environmental Eng., Michigan State Univ., Summer 2018, RISE Program)
    Project: DNA extraction from PPE and activated sludge
  • Sandra Un-Jan (B.S. Environmental Eng., Florida Gulf Coast Univ., Summer 2018, RISE Program)
    Project: Anaerobic respirometry of various waste feedstocks
  • Maren Deal (B.S. Environmental Engineering, Spring 2018-Summer 2018)
    Project: Support of mainstream deammonification project at Neuse River WRF
  • Samantha Pace (B. S. Industrial Design, Spring 2018- 2018
  • Elizabeth Wallner (B.S. Environmental Engineering, Spring 2018- 2019
  • Syond Chand (B.S. Environmental Engineering, Spring 2018)
  • Lauren Tuttle (B.S. Environmental Engineering, Fall 2016- 2017)
  • Adrianna Dacres (B.S. Environmental Science, Claflin Univ, Summer 2017, RISE Program) Project: DNA extraction from textiles
  • Austin Burke (B.S. Environmental Engineering, Spring 2017- Fall 2017 ) Project: Support for Granulation Experiment
  • Naile Segule (B.S. Biomedical Engineering, Park Scholar, Fall 2016- Spring 2017) Project: DNA extraction from textiles
  • Sophia Holmes (HS Student, NCSSM, Summer 2016-Feb. 2017) Project: Effect of bioaugmentation on anaerobic lipid degradation
  • Garrett Early (B.S. Physics, Summer 2016 – Fall 2016) Project: CFD of low-flush toilets
  • Jiawen Liu (B.S. ENE, Summer 2016- Summer 2017) Project: Microsphere experiments for assessing light in PSBRs; Modeling of pit emptying in Malawi
  • Jing Wu (B. S. ENE, Summer 2016- Spring 2017) Project: Operation of Algal Photobioreactors
  • Mathew Jacob (HS Student, RTHS, Summer 2016) Project: Effect of bicarbonate on algal growth media
  • Shannon Hurtado-Reyes (B. S. Environmental Engineering, Belmont College, SC, Summer 2016, under RISE Program) Project: Set up of anaerobic respirometer
  • *Sierra Schupp (B. S. ENE, Spring 2016- Fall 2016) Project: Operation of anaerobic reactors
  • *Jackie Yeh (B. S. ENE, Spring 2015 –Spring 2016) Project: Optimizing start-up of anaerobic reactors
  • Risa Sayre (B.S. Env. Science, Fall 2014-Summer 2016) Project: Treatment of Ascaris eggs in onsite sanitation systems
  • *Andrew Norris (B.S. CE, Fall 2015) Project: Aerobic and anaerobic reactors
  • *Melissa Hyland (B.S. CE, Fall 2015- Spring 2016) Project: Aerobic granulation reactors
  • Andrew Klappenbach (HS student, Research Triangle HS, Summer 2015) Project: Growth kinetics of Dunaliella sp.
  • Yash Sedani (HS Student, Enloe High School, Summer 2015) Project: DNA extraction from clothing
  • Dyon Vega (B.S. ENE, Fall 2014- Spring 2015) Project: Fate and transport of Ebola virus in human waste
  • Mackenzie Blum (B.S. ENE, Fall 2014- Spring 2015) Project: Quantitative microbial risk assessment of onsite sanitation systems
  • Shreyan Sen (PBS, Fall 2014- Spring 2015) Project: Microbial analysis of Illumina sequencing results for pit latrines