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.
Leili Akbar
Researcher Profile:
Determination and prediction of ultraviolet radiation-induced damages in RNA/DNA using long-range sequencing techniques
RESEARCH DESCRIPTION
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
Pathogen Reduction in Decentralized Water and Wastewater Treatment Technologies
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
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Dr. Sara Beck brings global collaboration to UBC Civil Engineering
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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