(2fc) Hydrogel and Polymer Composite Materials for Water Treatment Technologies & Monitoring of Emerging Contaminants to Further the Understanding of the Environmental Exposome

Inadequate access to safe drinking water and sanitation continues to pose serious health risks for humankind around the world. Clean water is vital for generating energy, growing food, and sustaining life itself. As demands on limited water resources continue to increase, engineers must create efficient new systems for water treatment, distribution, reuse, and recovery. In fact, the sustainable supply of water was identified by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) as one of the critical challenges we must address in their report "Environmental Engineering for the 21st Century: Addressing Grand Challenges”. As such, guaranteeing clean water and developing better wastewater management strategies are critical to sustain societies and reduce environmental health burdens.

Research Interests: The goal of my research program is to design and implement hazard management, water treatment technologies, and water reuse strategies to address complex environmental challenges through an equity and environmental justice lens. My experience designing and fabricating innovative sustainable remediation technologies and waste management strategies, understanding of life-cycle analysis, and knowledge of computational tools to investigate environmental processes and pollutant exposure risks, combined with my passion for environmental health justice and humanitarian engineering, has provided me with broad foundational knowledge to identify environmental engineering prevention and intervention strategies to address emerging contaminants in the environment in a more just, inclusive, and equitable manner.

My future research focuses on:

1. Identifying geographical areas with a high probability of hazard exposure to monitor for occurrence, fate, transport, and temporal variations of emerging contaminants to further the understanding of the environmental exposome.
2. Design and implement sustainable approaches to reduce health burdens through engineering interventions with a particular focus on hazard management, water treatment technologies, and water reuse strategies.
3. Leverage existing knowledge to build community resilience and foster informed decision-making to improve the well-being of marginalized and/or disadvantaged communities across the commonwealth and the world.

My short-term goals for these projects are: (1) Identify areas in the state with high occurrence of emerging contaminants using GIS modeling and select monitoring locations, (2) Collect water samples at these locations and conduct nontargeted analysis to determine contaminant distribution and elucidate their degradation and biotransformation products, and (3) Identify and implement a water remediation strategy best suited for the selected sampling area. In the long-term, I will work to expand the knowledge generated through these case-specific applications to develop a guiding framework to select sustainable short- and long-term water remediation strategies centered on multidirectional informational exchanges among all stakeholders, as well as translating these findings into hazard management decisions that foster sustainable development and environmental justice. To achieve these goals, I will apply for funding support through NIH and NSF, as well as water research grants through EPA. After my early research is completed, I will be a qualified candidate to apply for the NIH Independent Research Scientist Development Award (K02) through NIEH and the EPSCOR Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) Track-4: EPSCoR Research Fellows Award.

My previous research experience, doctoral and post-doctoral, and small business experience have collectively prepared me to accomplish these goals. My dissertation work focused on the development of low-cost sustainable technologies for water and wastewater treatment of persistent organic pollutants. Focusing on polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a superfund chemical of concern in the Commonwealth, I developed magnetic nanocomposite materials capable of binding chlorinated organics, rapidly separating bound organics from contaminated water sources using magnetic decantation, and capable of regeneration via low-energy thermal destabilization, resulting in a sustainable waste management platform. During this time, I was awarded the K.C. Donnelly Research Externship to work with John McKernan and Dr. Souhail Al-Abed at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Research and Development Engineering Technical Support Center in Cincinnati, OH, to conduct life-cycle analysis, and fate and transport of superfund chemicals, engineered nanomaterials, and microplastics in the aquatic environment. This experience further solidified my interest in innovative environmental management as a necessary field of study to address modern complex environmental challenges and basic human needs (i.e., water, food, infrastructure) more sustainably.

I continued my research on sustainable engineering interventions for wastewater and hazard management during my postdoctoral appointment with Dr. J. Zach Hilt. I focused on the development of smart flocculants for the treatment of emerging contaminants, specifically, per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), in contaminated water. This work spun off into a NIEHS small business innovative research (SBIR) Phase I grant where I was the principal investigator responsible for the overall management and execution of the grant and resulted in my part-time appointment with Bluegrass Advanced Materials (BAM), LLC. I continued to develop these materials at BAM in the position of Senior Scientist I, where I was able to secure Kentucky Innovation SBIR Matching Funds from the Cabinet of Economic Development. This research resulted in the filing of a patent on the flocculant technology.

During this same period, I have been mentored by Dr. Kelly Pennell, professor of Civil Engineering and Director of the UKSRC, who conducts stakeholder-informed research combined with computational tools and field research to inform decisions and actions related to environmental health. This experience further expanded my ability to draw meaningful insights across disparate disciplines and create new knowledge to address complex environmental exposures using human and community-centered approaches.

Teaching Philosophy: Jean Baptiste de la Salle once said, “Teachers who are not actively involved in the learning process themselves, force their students to drink from stagnant water.” This quote largely reflects my philosophy on teaching and the learning environment. Teaching and learning are collaborative and communicative processes that require active engagement and effort from both the student and the instructor. Certainly, teaching is not solely about the material at hand. Competent and effective teachers use their abilities and position to help students foster academic and professional integrity while discovering their unique ability to contribute to society in their desired careers. Based on this overarching philosophy, my primary teaching goals are

1. To foster student development of problem solving and critical thinking skills while connecting overarching concepts and relating information back to practical applications.
2. To deliver course material in the most clear and effective manner while developing assessments that are fair, accurate, and purposeful.
3. To create a collaborative and trusting learning environment that respects diverse backgrounds and exemplifies cultural competency.
4. To advance student self-efficacy in academic, professional, and philanthropic settings.

As a Hispanic woman in engineering, I am aware of the impact I can have on current and future students both inside and outside of the classroom. My unique background brings diversity of thought, perspectives and approaches to the students, and the department, that can help continue ongoing conversations to thoughtfully respond to the challenges and reality of our interconnected world. The reality is there are still racial and gender gaps that can only be addressed by those filling them and making a difference by leading by example. I am a firm believer that diversity, not only of socioeconomic makeup or race but of thought and experience, can fuel progress when it is embraced.

Teaching Interest: The interdisciplinary nature of my career, and my focus on water and wastewater engineering, positions me well to teach a wide range of courses in the chemical engineering and civil engineering curriculum at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Some of those courses include Introduction to fluid Mechanics, Fluid Mechanics, Process Principles, Separation Processes, Heat and Mas Transfer, Fundamentals and Applications of Sustainable Engineering, Introduction to Environmental Engineering, Water Resources Engineering, Water and Wastewater Treatment Engineering, Biological Processes for Water Quality Control, and Water Quality in Surface Waters.

I am interested in developing a course that focuses on the sustainability of current and emerging water treatment technologies regarding their economic, social, and environmental cost when they are first applied as well as the unforeseen benefits or consequences of their prolonged use. The course would introduce undergraduate and graduate students to traditional and emerging water treatment technologies and their applications, demonstrate how to conduct life cycle analysis, and evaluate resilience and sustainability aspects of these technologies. Additionally, I would also be interested in developing courses as special topics on: fate and transport of emerging contaminants, membrane technologies, introduction to the environmental exposome, and Introduction to bionanotechnology.