| Research Interests |
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My primary research area is coastal water quality, and recently I have
expanded my research to include activities on sanitation more broadly. The
work on coastal water quality is focused on understanding the sources,
transformation, transport, and ecology of biocolloids - specifically fecal
indicator organisms, pathogens, and phytoplankton, as well as sources and
fate of nitrogen and phosphorus. This knowledge is crucial to directing
new policies, and management and engineering practices that protect human
and ecosystem health along the coastal margin. The work on sanitation aims
to develop microbial risk assessment models to gain a better understanding
of how pathogens are transmitted to humans through their contact with
water, feces, and contaminated surfaces. Research is focused on key
problems in developed and developing countries. The goal is to design and
test effective interventions and technologies for reducing the burden of
infectious disease. Details of current projects can be found here.
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| Teaching
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Environmental science and engineering, by its very nature, is
multi-disciplinary. In order to be successful, students must be grounded
in fundamental sciences and also have the know-how to apply the
fundamentals to real, complex problems. Because there are also regulatory,
political, and social components to real environmental problems, the most
successful environmental science and engineering problem-solvers will have
a background in these broader domains as well. With these challenges in
mind, I have developed four multi-disciplinary classes that aim to supply
the fundamentals for applied environmental problem solving: CEE 175A/275A
California Coast: Science, Policy, and Law, CEE 272 Coastal Contaminants,
CEE 274E Pathogens in the Environment, and CEE 274P Environmental Health
Microbiology Lab. CEE 175A/275A is an iEarth class at Stanford that I
co-teach with two law professors (Deborah Sivas and Meg Caldwell). The
class is very popular
with students from the Law School, Civil and Environmental Engineering,
and Earth Systems Science. For more information about these courses, please
follow this link.
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| Awards |
Participant in National Academy of Engineers' Frontiers of Engineering
Symposium 2008
NSF Career Award 2007
Pacific Rim Center for Oceans and Human Health Visiting Scholar 2007
Excellence in Teaching Award at Univ. California Irvine 2001
Faculty Fellow Award at Univ. California Irvine 2000-2002
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| State and National Service |
Member State of California Clean Beach Task
Force (2007-present)
Member State of California Ocean Protection Council Science Advisor Team
(2008 - present)
Participant on National Experts Workshop of Recreational Water Quality
Criteria held by USEPA (2007)
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