Yutong Zhang presents poster at the 2017 GREAT Symposium at the UC Davis International Center.
Yutong Zhang presented a poster on his research at the 2017 GREAT Symposium at the UC Davis International Center on August 30, 2017. Yutong visited our lab this summer from Zhejiang University (ZJU) in Shanghai. His goal was to detect coliphage in environmental and water samples, and to evaluate distributions of concentrations in the UC Davis wastewater treatment plant. He was very helpful in getting new assays running in our lab, and worked closely with Hannah Safford towards the end of his project for sampling, plating and counting many many many bacteriophage plaque forming units! Yutong plans to apply to graduate school this Fall. Best of luck to Yutong in his studies and research!
Yutong visits Lake Spafford on UC Davis’s campus for sampling.
Photo Credits: Hannah Safford
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2017 Women for Water Research – Trans Tahoe Relay Team
This weekend, I joined 5 other women in swimming across Lake Tahoe for the 41st annual Trans-Tahoe relay on Saturday July 22. I’ve been pining to do this race for many years, and finally was available (and in the country) this year. Fortunately, an amazing group of women were game to join me in the fun.
Rise and shine for racing across Lake Tahoe!
My goal was to gather together inspiring women interested in science, water, the environment, and sports to reflect together while swimming across the lake. I also wanted to celebrate achievements in improving water clarity in Lake Tahoe while raising awareness about water research and efforts still needed to protect our resources. We raised funds to support the Tahoe Environmental Research Center (thank you friends, family and alums for donating in our honor!).
The “Women for Water Research” team was a diverse and talented crew. Jennifer Teerlink, a former Division 1 collegiate swimmer (our powerhouse), led the team out of the water. JT is a Senior Environmental Scientist at California Department of Pesticide Regulation. Next off the boat came Genevieve Evans, an elite off-road triathlete and long-distance mountain biker, who works as a transportation planner for a consulting firm in Tahoe City. After Genevieve came team captain (yours truly), followed by Veronica Morales, also an assistant professor in U.C. Davis’ Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. Veronica decided that her first ever visit to the Tahoe Basin would involve swimming across the largest lake in California.
Reflections on Water: Team captain, yours truly, hits the water
Deb Niemeier rounded out the trio of CEE professors, completing her first open water swim. Megan Michelson, whose whole family helped our swim happen (babysitter mom and boat driver husband!) came next in the water. Megan also closed out our swim (after each of us took three turns in the water), which took us 5 hours and 17 minutes. Megan is a Tahoe City-based freelance writer and former editor at ESPN.com and Outside Magazine. And last, but not least, our boat driver, Dan Abrams was a critical team member following our GPS course closely and helping us pick up trash in the lake along the way.
Check out an article in the UC Davis news, here. Now we can all check this one off our bucket list (and you can check out Veronica transitioning into the water in Outside Magazine an in AggieXtra!).
Photo credits: Team member, Megan Michaelson
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Production and sale of fertilizers derived from human waste can serve to promote sustainable agriculture and sanitation, but is it safe? In my talk entitled, “Human – Environment Interactions: Coupling Global Benefits while Quantifying Micro-scale Risks,” I presented my work to quantify human health risks associated with urine collection from dry toilets and subsequent production of struvite fertilizers using manual reactors built in Durban, South Africa. I was invited to present this work at the International Water Association North America (IWANA) meeting held on June 23, 2017 (my husband’s birthday!) in Ann Arbor, MI.
Kara Nelson of UC Berkeley moderating the invited speakers and panelists.
With over 80,000 urine diverting dry toilets in place, the eThekwini Municipality has been active in evaluating the potential for urine collection and nutrient recovery at scale to reduce costs of providing sanitation services. The detailed risk assessment I conducted along the sanitation value chain identifies critical control points to help reduce health risks associated with waste collection and nutrient recovery.
A high resolution model of the concentrations of pathogens on study participant hands through time was developed using videography from urine collection and processing in the field, surface sampling, and literature inputs. Typically, risk assessments for urine nutrient recovery have made bulk estimates for the amount of urine that may be directly ingested during application as fertilizer. This work instead models indirect pathogen transmission through transfer of pathogens from urine to surfaces and surfaces to hands, representing a more likely transmission scenario.
When looking to bring resource-oriented sanitation to scale it is important that health risks are quantified in realistic and comprehensive ways to ensure safe production processes throughout the resource-management system.
The IWANA meeting followed the “Advancing Healthy Communities through Environmental Engineering and Science” conference of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP), also in Ann Arbor. I presented a poster at the AEESP conference and moderated a fantastic session on “Healthy Communities Across the Globe: WASH for Developing Countries.” The session included high-quality presentations from Chuck Haas (Drexel), Emily Kumpel (UMass Amherst), Sherri Cook (UC Boulder), and Jim Smith (UVA).
Photo Credit: Joan Rose / United States of America National Committee of the International Water Association (Issue 8 – July 2017 Newsletter)
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Hannah Safford recognized as Top Thinker by Pacific Standard
Incoming UC Davis PhD student, Hannah Safford was recently recognized as one of the Top 30 Thinkers under 30 by Pacific Standard for her push for environmentally sustainble policies.
At UC Davis, Hannah will be refining her technical skills as she works towards her goal to address environmental issues in California, particularly water management, use, and re-use, through sustainability and effective policies.
“Incredible things can be accomplished when you assemble a team of motivated, passionate individuals and give them the freedom and flexibility to pursue ideas for the public good,” Safford says.
Dr. Timothy Julian, EawagDr. Yuke Wang, Emory University
Human-environment interactions are complex. Capturing this complexity is essential to understand enteric disease transmission.
In the event entitled, “Quantifying Human Exposures for Enteric Disease Transmission” chaired by Dr. Tim Julian, I recently presented with an outstanding group of individuals at the International Water Association meeting on Health Related Water Microbiology, and the UNC Water Microbiology conference, held in Chapel Hill, NC May 15-19. The goal was to discuss how we can capture, model and assess the importance of human-environment interactions to better understand risk.
Professor Bischel, UC DavisProfessor Hidenori Harada, University of Kyoto
Dr. Julian introduced the historical context of exposure assessments and macro-level observational strategies. Dr. Wang presented on structured observations and the competing hazards model developed for the Sanipath project in Ghana. I presented on videography and the Microlevel Activity Time Series based on my experiences with the VUNA project in South Africa. Professor Harada presented on using biomarkers to assess indirect exposures based on work in Bangladesh. A group discussion followed.
Photos credit: The Water Institute at UNC
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