Sunny Jiang, Professor and Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine, will present.

Viruses in wastewater: from SARS-CoV2 surveillance to pathogen removal credits for watewater reuse

ABSTRACT: 

Viruses are prevalent in human wastewater and are the major cause of waterborne diseases worldwide. However, tracking viruses in wastewater has been an important challenge, which raises health concerns in wastewater reuse. Monitoring of human viruses in wastewater can also reflect the viral disease epidemic in a community. This seminar presents recent efforts in tracking SARS-CoV-2 in human wastewater in order to understand its relationship with the spread of COVID-19 in communities of Southern California. Looking beyond the years of COVID-19 pandemic, a near real time virus monitoring method was developed and tested using water samples collected from local wastewater reclamation plants. The outcomes of the research suggest that rapid virus monitoring in wastewater can benefit both the effort of wastewater reuse and wastewater-based epidemiology investigation.

BIO: Dr. Sunny Jiang is a professor and the Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of California, Irvine.  Her research focuses on microbiological water quality, engineered and natural water treatment technologies. Dr. Jiang served on U.S. National Academies’ Water Reuse committee to guide the nation on water reuse decisions and contributed her expertise on WHO committee for Desalination. Dr. Jiang received her Ph.D. from University of South Florida in Marine Science. She has been a professor at University of California, Irvine since 1998. 

Sunny Jiang, Professor and Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine, will present.

Viruses in wastewater: from SARS-CoV2 surveillance to pathogen removal credits for watewater reuse

ABSTRACT: 

Viruses are prevalent in human wastewater and are the major cause of waterborne diseases worldwide. However, tracking viruses in wastewater has been an important challenge, which raises health concerns in wastewater reuse. Monitoring of human viruses in wastewater can also reflect the viral disease epidemic in a community. This seminar presents recent efforts in tracking SARS-CoV-2 in human wastewater in order to understand its relationship with the spread of COVID-19 in communities of Southern California. Looking beyond the years of COVID-19 pandemic, a near real time virus monitoring method was developed and tested using water samples collected from local wastewater reclamation plants. The outcomes of the research suggest that rapid virus monitoring in wastewater can benefit both the effort of wastewater reuse and wastewater-based epidemiology investigation.

BIO: Dr. Sunny Jiang is a professor and the Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of California, Irvine.  Her research focuses on microbiological water quality, engineered and natural water treatment technologies. Dr. Jiang served on U.S. National Academies’ Water Reuse committee to guide the nation on water reuse decisions and contributed her expertise on WHO committee for Desalination. Dr. Jiang received her Ph.D. from University of South Florida in Marine Science. She has been a professor at University of California, Irvine since 1998.