Author: CAEN

We are excited to welcome all new Biotech members (and a late welcome to all who joined us this summer)!

-Adelaide Nieguitsila – Visiting scholar from Gabon working with Lut Raskin

-Alyssa Schubert – Florida State – Masters student in Environmental Engineering working with Nancy Love

-Ariel Roy – Undergraduate Civil & Environmental Engineering student working with Krista Wigginton

-Brittany Hicks – Summer researcher working with Nancy Love

-Grace van Velden – PhD student in Environmental Engineering working with Lut Raskin

-Lucinda Li – PhD student in Environmental Engineering working with Nancy Love and Krista Wigginton

-Lucy Aley – Undergraduate Civil & Environmental Engineering student working with Lut Raskin

-Maxim Muermans –  Masters student in Chemical Engineering at KU Leuven (Belgium) working with Lut Raskin

-Meghna Prasad – Masters SUGS Environmental Engineering student working with Lut Raskin

-Michael Mata – Undergraduate student in Civil & Environmental Engineering working with Krista Wigginton

-Myriam Sarment – Undergraduate SROP student working with Nancy Love

-Ross Vander Meulen – Masters student in Environmental Engineering working with Glen Daigger

-Sonja Gagen – PhD student in Environmental Engineering working with Lut Raskin & Steve Skerlos

-Tjok Jan Meuwissen – Masters student in Environmental Technology at KU Leuven (Belgium) working with Lut Raskin

-YU Tong (Yet) – Masters student in Environmental Engineering working with Glen Daigger

-Yuewei Liu (William) – Masters student in Environmental Engineering working with Glen Daigger

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Heather Goetsch successfully defended her dissertation on Friday August 24 – congratulations Heather!!

 

Zhong Qiao will defend on Thursday September 6 @ 3pm!

-Zhong also recently had a paper accepted to ES&T – congratulations Zhong!

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Within the past couple of months, a number of our students have received prestigious awards!

Congratulations to:

Hollie Adejumo – U-M International Institute Individual Fellowship

Kate Dowdell – NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

Heather Goetsch – AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship

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Congratulations to all winners!

Best SOP- Yinyin Ye
Yinyin did an excellent job curating and improving SOPs.

Grateful Head- Juliana Huizenga
Juliana always makes sure her hair is tied back to prevent personal injury.

Fume Hood Hero – Enrique Rodriguez
Enrique reminds us to keep the fume hood free and clear. This not only reduces potential contamination incidents and crowding, but also enables the fume hoods to work better by improving air flow.

PPE VIP – Brady
You don’t need to remind Brady to put on a lab coat or goggles!

BSL2 Buster – Nicole Rockey
Nicole diligently emails the Wiggi group when she needs the BSL2 hoods. She is quick to help others who need advice in culturing BSL2 organisms.

ReMARKably Reliable Labeler- Kathryn Langenfeld
Have you ever seen something incompletely labeled by Katie? Me neither.

Best Lab-footwear – Freddy Ordonez
Freddy follows good footwear practices in the lab!

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Postdoctoral research fellow William Tarpeh is one of five inductees into the University of Michigan chapter of the Bouchet Honor Society, which recognizes outstanding scholarly achievement and a commitment to diversity and excellence in doctoral education and the professoriate.

The Bouchet Society is named for Edward Bouchet, the first African-American PhD recipient in the U.S (Physics, Yale University, 1876). A national network, it connects scholars who exemplify scholarship, leadership, character, service, and advocacy for students who have been traditionally underrepresented in the academy.

Tarpeh works with Professors Krista Wigginton and Nancy Love on determining the fate of pharmaceuticals in producing urine-derived fertilizers. During his PhD at UC Berkeley, he designed and evaluated novel processes for nitrogen recovery from separately collected urine. His primary research interests include physicochemical resource recovery from under-utilized waste and engineering process technologies for sustainable sanitation.

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Congratulations to Emily Crossette for winning one of this year’s University of Michigan Integrated Training in Microbial Systems (ITiMS) fellowship!

The Integrated Training in Microbial Systems (ITiMS) program awarded doctoral student Emily Crossette with a $10,000 mini-grant to evaluate the dynamics of antimicrobial resistant genes in manure management systems.

The ITiMS program trains future scientists who will design and implement novel prevention, diagnostic, and treatment strategies stemming from a deep understanding of the impact of microbial communities on human and environmental health.

Crossette’s interests lie in resource recovery from animal and human wastewater, the environmental fate of emerging contaminants and antibiotic resistance genes, source separated wastewater treatment, and environmental public health. Crossette is co-advised by Professors Lut Raskin and Krista Wigginton.

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Graduate student Ernesto Martinez Paz earns the Dow Master’s Fellowship. Ernesto is co-advised by Dr. Krista R. Wigginton and Dr. Branko Kerkez, and his project is to find sustainable solutions applicable to the bigger problems currently faced by cities and their growing population, such as in food, energy, water, and transportation systems. He is excited to bring in and share his academic experience in wastewater treatment and, likewise, to work and learn with students from different programs.

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The Raskin Group has recently graduated several members and added new members!

Congratulations to:

Dr. Nadine Kotlarz – graduated with Ph.D. in Civil & Environmental Engineering and now has a postdoctoral research position at North Carolina State University!

James Yonts – graduated with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Civil & Environmental Engineering and is now working in Michigan with Tetra Tech!

Also a warm welcome to:

• Brittany Colcord – Master’s Student
• Kate Dowdell – Ph.D. Student
• Freddy Ordonez – Master’s student
• Nuria Zamorano – Visiting Ph.D. student
• Dr. Melina Bautista – Postdoctoral researcher

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PhD candidate Shilva Shrestha was awarded with “Outstanding Poster Award” for her poster “Production of High-Value Chemicals From Urban Organic Waste Streams Using Anaerobic Bioreactor System” at the 15th IWA World Conference on Anaerobic Digestion (AD-15) held in Beijing, China, October 17-20, 2017.

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Doctoral students Heather Goetsch and Chia-Chen Wu were each selected to receive a Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship.

This fellowship supports outstanding students who have achieved candidacy and are actively working on dissertation research and writing. It is intended to support those who are working on dissertations that are unusually creative, ambitious and risk-taking.

Heather Goetsch is co-advised by Professor Nancy Love and Professor Krista Wigginton; Chia-Chen Wu is co-advised by Professor Nancy Love and Professor Terese Olson.

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