Professor Thanh (Helen) Nguyen
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
University Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Monday , April 10, PACCAR 202 4:10-5 p.m.
Human Health Impacts of Water Reuse in the Changing Climate: Pathogen Control for Global Water and Food Safety
Water reuse is a necessity in the new era of increased uncertainty in prolong droughts and sudden heavy rainfall due to climate change worldwide. Successful recycling of wastewater for human consumption or irrigation requires that this water is not contaminated with pathogens, especially human-disease causing viruses. Robust design of virus inactivation for water reuse requires fundamental understanding on virus survival, persistence and transport. Nguyen’s group has conducted comprehensive studies on rotavirus, which is the most common virus that causes severe diarrhea, vomiting and acute dehydration globally. Their results showed that rotavirus is uniquely mobile under conditions related to managed groundwater recharge.
Dr Helen Nguyen is currently an associate professor of environmental engineering and a faculty affiliate with Institute for Genomic Biology at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. Prior to joining University of Illinois, she was a Gaylord Donnelley Environmental Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University. Her research group focuses on waterborne pathogens for global water and food safety. Besides a number of projects based in the US, her group is conducting research in developing countries on human resilience to waterborne infectious disease outbreak related to extreme natural events. Her group has published on a wide range of topics related to human health impact of water reuse, food safety, and pathogens in drinking water distribution systems. She has led multiple interdisciplinary projected funded by the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the US Department of Agriculture. She is currently leading three interdisciplinary projects on human health impacts of on-farm reuse of wastewater in small rural communities and urban hydroponic farming in the US and in Israel.
