Previous News Items2015 August – Collaborative research with the National Institute of Standards and Technology published in Analytica Chimica Acta. August – Welcome new group member Emily Tully to the Master of Science Track. August – Kirsten Studer is awarded a National Institute of Health Training Grant to further her PhD research. August – Congratulations to Anne Galyean on passing her final oral examination for the PhD with her thesis entitled, “Characterizing Silver Engineered Nanoparticles in Natural Waters: Analytical Considerations for Instrumental and Environmental Factors Using Asymmetric Flow Field Flow Fractionation”. August – Congratulations to Breanne Holmes on being accepted to the PhD program. Breanne was an invited speaker at the Gordon Research Seminar on Drinking Water Disinfection By-Products. Her talk was entitled, “Identifying Disinfection By-Products as Estrogenic or Androgenic Substances". August – Kirsten Studer (PhD track) presented a poster at the 2015 Gordon Research Conference on Disinfection By-Products titled, “Extraction Methods for Disinfection Byproducts in a Concentrated Organic Matter Matrix”. July – Michael Weiss successfully defended his MSEE project final report titled, “Minimizing Disinfection By-Product Formation by Evaluating Drinking Water Treatment Options”. May – Kirsten Studer was awarded the J. Don and Margie Smith Summer Research Fellowship to support her PhD research. May – Monica Kuroki successfully defended her MSEE project final report titled, “Model Prediction of HAA9 Values for Chlorinated and Chloraminated Disinfection in Drinking Water Using ICR Data”. March – Kasia Grzebyk and Kirsten Studer successfully defended their PhD written examinations. March – Breanne Holmes gave a talk at the American Chemical Society’s 249th National meeting in Denver, CO entitled, “Identifying Disinfection By-Products Capable of Binding to the Androgen Receptor”. 2014 September – Alma Beciragic (PhD track) is the recipient of the 2014 Dr. W Wesley Eckenfelder Jr. Scholarship award from consulting engineers Brown and Caldwell. August – Ariel Atkinson (PhD track) gives oral presentation at the 248th American Chemical Society’s (ACS) National Meeting in San Francisco entitled, “Impact of operational parameters on the fate of DBPs during reverse-osmosis membrane filtration” and a poster presentation “Impact of membrane fouling by organic matter on the fate of disinfection by-products during nanofiltration”. Attendance at this meeting was underwritten by a competitive award from ACS WIESE through the ACS ENVR 100th Anniversary Emerging Leader Award. August - Welcome new group members Alma Beciragic (PhD track), Martha Scott Tomlinson (MS track), Chuck McCall (MSEE track), Monica Kuroki (MSEE track). July – Will Stanley graduates with the Master of Science degree. June – Anne Galyean presented poster at the TechConnect Conference on Nanotech Advanced Materials and Aplications in Washington DC, entitled, “A New Separation Metric for the Optimization of AF4 Separations of Polydispersed Nanomaterials". May – Current PhD student, Anne Galyean, featured on the UNC Home page. January – Our continuing research collaborator and visiting scholar to our group in 2010, Maria José Farré, has been awarded the Marie Curie Fellowship for research in the Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA) beginning in August 2014. January – The second of 3 papers from Bonnie Lyon’s PhD research published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials. Alumna Dr. Lyon begins a Postdoctoral Scholar Position with Professor Kurt Pennell in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Tufts University. January – Collaborative research with the University of Queensland (Australia) published in the journal Water Research. January – Current PhD, student Kirsten Studer, awarded a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency predoctoral fellowship under the EPA/UNC-CH Curriculum of Toxicology Research Training Agreement 2013 November – Feature article "Identifying practices to keep NC’s drinking water safe" published in the Fall 2013 edition of the school's magazine, Carolina Public Health. October – Awarded National Science Foundation Funding from the Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems Division for the project, “Retooling Green Wastewater Treatment Infrastructure to Support Edible Crop Growth”. This is a collaboration with the Department of Soil Science at North Carolina State University and Integrated Water Strategies (Apex, NC). September – Anne Galyean awarded the predoctoral traineeship in Environmental Health Sciences through the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Environmental Biostatistics training program for the 2013 academic year. August – Welcome new group members, Kasia Grzebyk (PhD track), Kirsten Studer (PhD track), and Cataia Ives (MS track). August - Awarded (with Orlando Coronell) National Science Foundation Funding from the Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems Division for the project, “Tailoring thin-film nanocomposite membranes for water reuse applications”. July - Jennifer Casanova receives her MSPh degree with her final report; “Constructed Wetlands for Wastewater Treatment and Reuse in North Carolina: Case Study and Community Perceptions.” June – Yi Liu defends her MS thesis, “Fate of Contaminants of Emerging Environmental Concern During Drinking Water Treatment Processes”. June – Anne Galyean accepted to the Gordon Conference on Environmental Nanotechnology, Stowe, VT, receives travel award, and first place student poster award, “Optimizing AF4 Separations of Silver Nanoparticles in Complex Aquatic Matrices”. May – Megan Nunes defends her MS thesis, “Evaluating Endocrine Activity of Individual and Complex Mixtures of Disinfection By-Products Using Yeast Assays”. April – Anne Galyean (PhD track) receives the UNC Graduate School’s Off-Campus Dissertation Research Fellowship for Fall 2013. March - Jen Casanova (MSPh track) presents poster at the meeting Environmental Health - Science and Policy to Protect Future Generations, held in Boston, MA, from March 3 to 6. “Strategies for Approaching Wastewater as a Safe Resource: Natural Systems of Remediation”. March – Alumnus Dr Vanessa Pereira returns to present a seminar in our ENVR 400 series. February – Ariel Atkinson (PhD track) awarded Fellowship for Australia by the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes Program of the National Science Foundation. Ariel will use this award to travel to the University of Queensland, Australia during the summer and enhance her research training there. 2012 December - Rebecca Milsk and Ramon DC Alatorre receive their Masters of Science Degrees 2011 June - Bonnie Lyon (PhD track) receives Royster Society of Fellows Dissertation Completion Fellowship for the 2011-2012 academic year and the Gillings Dissertation Award June - Pearl Kaplan (MS recipient August 2011) awarded Fulbright grant for research at McGill University, Montreal, Canada beginning September 2011. January - New Collaborative Research Initiated with the University of Queensland (Australia), WaterSecure, and Veolia 2010 August - Member of the Organizing Committee of the International Water Association's Micropol & Ecohazard 2011 Specialist Conference to be held in Sydney, Australia June 11-13. Abstracts accepted until September 17th, 2010. May - PhD candidate Anne Galyean is recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship Award January - Weinberg to Chair HiWATE Open Day in London on 23 February January - $300,000 Award from Water Research Foundation to study Endocrine Activity in Disinfection Byproducts 2009 2008 March - Halogenated Furanones at higher levels in some drinking waters than previously known March - Cities rarely release water test results 2007 November - Interview: Scientists stumped over proper disposal of old medicine 2006 Harrison Prescott Eddy Medal awarded by the Water Environment Federation Research on disinfection byproducts receives best paper award EPA awards $525,000 to study common drugs in drinking water One of 17 members of the search committee convened to select the new department chair (Word document). 2005 |