Sarah Potgieter

Postdoctoral Researcher

[email protected]

 

 

Degrees

  • Postdoctoral research fellow, University of Michigan, USA (2019 – current)
  • Ph.D. in Microbiology, University of Pretoria, South Africa (2019)
  • M.Sc. in Microbiology, University of Pretoria, South Africa (2013)
  • B.Sc. Honors in Microbiology, University of Pretoria, South Africa (2009)
  • B.Sc. in Microbiology, University of Pretoria, South Africa (2008)

 

Areas of Interest

I am interested in the ecological and functional dynamics of the microbial communities within drinking water treatment and distribution systems. More specifically, how operational conditions within these systems (i.e. biofiltration, disinfection and distribution etc.) affect the composition, diversity and function of the microbial communities present. These investigations can reveal the impact of process, infrastructure, and environmental factors inherent to each drinking water system on the drinking water microbial community, and potentially offer opportunities to re-think microbial management in drinking water systems.

 

Research Projects

My postdoc work is part of the Blue Sky Initiative, which focuses on the development of (near) real-time microbiome monitoring of drinking water systems. I am working on creating baseline bacterial metagenomic data for the City of Ann Arbor drinking water treatment and distribution system, concentrating on microbial-based concerns relevant to the utility such as, the dynamics of nitrifiers in biofiltration and the distribution system and the correlations between water usage and distribution system configurations (e.g. dead ends) with opportunistic bacterial infections.

 

Publications

Potgieter, S., Pinto, A., Sigudu, M., Du Preez, H., Ncube, E. and Venter, S., 2018. Long-term spatial and temporal microbial community dynamics in a large-scale drinking water distribution system with multiple disinfectant regimes. Water research, 139, pp.406-419.

Potgieter, S.C., Dai, Z., Venter, S.N., Sigudu, M. and Pinto, A.J., 2020. Microbial Nitrogen Metabolism in Chloraminated Drinking Water Reservoirs. mSphere, 5(2).

 

Manuscripts in preparation

Potgieter, S. C., Venter, S. N., Havenga, M., Sigudu, M. and Pinto, A. J. Reproducible microbial community dynamics of two drinking water systems treating similar source waters. (In preparation).

 

Conferences and Presentations

Venter, S. N., Pinto, A., Potgieter, S. and Bezuidenhout, C. Making sense of the drinking water microbiome. Workshop presented at Water Institute of South Africa (WISA) conference, Cape Town, South Africa, June 2018.

Potgieter, S., Venter, S. N and Pinto, A. Microbial nitrogen metabolism in chloraminated drinking water reservoirs. Oral presentation by SC Potgieter at the South African Society of Microbiology conference, Johannesburg, South Africa, April 2018.

Potgieter, S., Pinto, A., Sigudu, M., EJ Ncube. E. J., du Preez, H and Venter, S. N. Long-term spatial and temporal microbial community dynamics in a large-scale drinking water distribution system. Poster presented by SC Potgieter at the IWA International Young Water Professional Conference, Cape Town, South Africa, December 2017.

Potgieter, S., Pinto, A., Sigudu, M., EJ Ncube. E. J., du Preez, H and Venter, S. N. Microbial community structure and diversity of a large-scale South African drinking water distribution system. Poster presented by SN Venter at the 7th congress of the Federation of European Microbiological Society (FEMS), Valencia, Spain, July 2017.

Potgieter, S., Pinto, A., Sigudu, M., EJ Ncube. E. J., du Preez, H and Venter, S. N. Long-term spatial and temporal microbial community dynamics in drinking water distribution systems: A South African case study. Poster presented by SC Potgieter at the IWA UNC Water Microbiology conference held in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA, May 2017.

Potgieter, S., Steenkamp, E., V, Brozel and Venter, S. N. Investigations into the existence of unique environmental Escherichia coli populations. Oral presentation by SC Potgieter at South African Society of Microbiology conference (SASM), Cape Town, South Africa, November 2011

 

Contact information

Email: [email protected]

Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sarah_Potgieter

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-potgieter-911ba3146/