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