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PhD Candidate Thusitha Rathnayake was recently awarded a NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship. Read this student spotlight about his interest in microplastic pollution, his experience at UBC, and what led him to focus his doctoral research on the Impact of Different UV-LED Wavelengths and Their Doses on Microplastic Degradation and Chemical Leaching.
Mitacs recently featured our research collaboration with Toronto-based company Clear Inc. and London, Ontario-based company MW Technologies:
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"While growing up in the forest of Kilgoris and in Kisii, Kenya, Dr. Paul Onkundi Nyangaresi developed a deep appreciation for the environment and his community.
Now, as a researcher in environmental engineering and electronic science in Canada, Dr. Nyangaresi is developing a low-cost and easy-t0-use water disinfection system that purifies rainwater."
Postdoctoral Researcher Paul Onkundi Nyangaresi was recognized with the 2024 Mitacs Inclusive Innovator of the Year award in Ottawa
UBC postdoctoral researcher Paul Onkundi Nyangaresi (Civil Engineering) has been awarded the Mitacs Innovation Award — Inclusive Innovator of the Year for his work in Kisii County, Kenya to devise a water treatment solution that meets unique cultural and environmental needs and applies his cutting-edge knowledge of emerging water treatment technologies.
A UBC news release featured our rainwater treatment project in Kenya, in the home of postdoctoral researcher Paul Onkundi Nyangaresi
"In Kisii County, southwestern Kenya, collecting water was once a daily burden that defined the rhythm of life for children. Hours spent during the school day walking to creeks and springs that were often unsafe left little time for schoolwork and exposed the children to waterborne diseases."
2024 CIHR HSIF
Patrick Mirindi was awarded a CIHR Health Systems Impact Fellowship to help address pressing priorities and improve care for people in Canada
Patrick will be working closely with the BC Ministry of Health to Unveil the Hidden Health Risks in BC's Water Distribution Systems
Learn more about him and the other 2024 CIHR Health Systems Impact fellows here!
Thusitha’s Phil Singer Award
Thusitha Rathnayake was awarded the Dr. Philip C. Singer Scholarship from the American Water Works Association. This award was established in 2020 in honor of Dr. Philip C. Singer to recognize an outstanding graduate student who is pursuing research on topics related to drinking water quality, environmental science, and public health. Dr. Singer was Thusitha’s academic g-g-great grandfather:
Phil Singer (UNC) > Des Lawler (UT Austin) > Jeannie Darby (UC Davis) > Karl Linden (CU Boulder) > Sara Beck (UBC) > Thusitha Rathnayake.
UV Solutions
UV light is increasingly being used for disinfection in rural and remote communities. UV Solutions highlights some of the work being conducted by our research group, including Paul Onkundi Nyangaresi's research on rainwater disinfection (for drinking) in Kisii, Kenya and Adefolawe Adeyeye's work investigating lime and lemon juice to potentially reverse the buildup of calcium, magnesium, iron and manganese: Read more here ​
Microplastics
Thusitha Rathanyake's work has been supported by collaborations through UBC's Cluster for Microplastics, Health and the Environment. We had the opportunity to discuss UBC's work with the Canadian Water Network here: Read more here
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Adefolawe Adeyeye, MASc
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Haiqa Koul, MEng, and grad assistant in our lab
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Varshaa Kumaran, MASc (cosupervised with Pierre Berube).
Decentralized Treatment Solutions
Our lab was featured in this Earth Day feature:
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"United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 outlines the need for universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene for all by 2030. However, drinking water sources worldwide are heavily contaminated and wastewater is often untreated before discharge into the environment, contributing to the spread of disease. Dr. Sara Beck, an assistant professor at UBC Civil Engineering, is advancing research aimed at removing microbial and chemical contaminants from water and wastewater in decentralized settings.
Dr. Beck is receiving funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and the British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund (BCKDF) to advance her group’s work on decentralized water and sanitation systems"
Our lab received $314,000 in crucial infrastructure support from the Canada Foundation for Innovation John R. Evans Leadership Fund and British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund. Read more here:
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"Ten engineering projects from across both UBC campuses received over $2.8 million from the CFI John R. Evans Leadership Fund (CFI JELF), for projects ranging from work to develop more resilient road infrastructure in Canada, to developing more resilient, sustainable high-rise buildings."
Research Spotlight: Dr. Leili Akbar
Postdoc Dr. Leili Abkar was awarded an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow award for her research:
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"Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is an advanced disinfection approach used in different fields, such as water reuse, wastewater, drinking water and air. While UV has been effective in microorganisms’ inactivation, its efficacy so far has been evaluated using conventional culturing techniques, which is not representative of the impacted medium’s diverse microbiome. This research aims to utilize long-range sequencing methods combined with long-range qPCR procedures for detecting UV-induced damage to fully evaluate and assess the impact of UVC. Further, applying machine learning techniques to develop models to predict the damaged sites with UV range. While this research is designed to address the water disinfection reliability using UV disinfection technology, the outcome can be expanded to other UVC-exposed media."
NSERC Discovery Grant
Our lab was fortunate to receive $378,500 in NSERC Discovery Grant funding. Read more here:
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"A total of 85 new projects led by UBC researchers were awarded $17.3 million through the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council's Discovery Grants and Discovery Accelerator Supplements programs. A further $2.7 million was awarded to 22 UBC researchers through NSERC's Research Tools and Instruments program.
These awards were announced as part of the Government of Canada's investment of more than $635 million for research, which also included funding through the Canada Research Chairs Program and SSHRC Insight Grants, Insight Development Grants, Partnership Grants and Partnership Development Grants programs. New projects led by UBC researchers and new and renewed UBC Canada Research Chairs were awarded approximately $48 million of this announced investment.
Global collaboration
Dr. Beck joins the Department after completing post-docs at the University of Colorado and Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, opportunities that followed a Fulbright at the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand.
Dr. Beck’s research broadly focuses on understanding and preventing pathogen transmission in water treatment. “The goal is to identify microbial contaminants of concern in drinking water and wastewater sources and to develop and evaluate cost effective and energy-efficient clean water processes to reduce that microbial contamination,” she said.
The development of these technologies may contribute to solving significant problems, as water becomes increasingly scarcer on our resource-limited Earth.
Dr. Beck’s unconventional path took her from a Bachelor’s degree in aerospace and a coveted position at NASA supporting the Space Shuttle program, to cofounding the Central Houston chapter of Engineers Without Borders-USA, to working on small-scale water and power projects in a rural community in Uganda..
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