About
26
Publications
5,466
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484
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Introduction
My research training and skillsets lie strongly within the environmental engineering field. However, I have an interdisciplinary background that not only includes research on novel nanotechnologies for water treatment but also contaminant fate and transport modeling of organic contaminants in surface waters. My research has also extended to projects that benefit several aspects of ecotoxicology, especially in the areas of contaminant exposure and effects.
Additional affiliations
April 2020 - present
University of Alberta
Position
- Professor (Assistant)
April 2018 - March 2020
April 2018 - March 2020
Education
January 2014 - January 2018
September 2011 - September 2013
Publications
Publications (26)
Although the exposure assessment of wastewater-derived micropollutants via chemical, bioanalytical, and modeling methods in environmental compartments are becoming more frequent, the whole-body burden (i.e. internal concentrations) in non-target organisms resulting from micropollutant exposure is rarely assessed. An understanding of the internal co...
Exposure assessment of pesticides has substantially improved over time, with methods that now include a combination of advanced analytical techniques and fate/transport models to evaluate their spatio-temporal distribution. However, current regulatory environmental risk assessment considers thresholds from laboratory studies completed under standar...
Decades of studies on endocrine disruption have suggested the need to manage the release of key estrogens from municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). However, the proposed thresholds are below the detection limits of most routine chemical analysis, thereby restricting the ability of watershed managers to assess the environmental exposure app...
Organic micropollutants found in the environment are a diverse group of compounds that includes pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and endocrine disruptors. Their presence in the aquatic environment continues to be a concern as the risk they pose towards both the environment and human health is still inconclusive. Removal of these compounds f...
Pesticides used in agriculture can end up in nearby streams and can have a negative impact on nontarget organisms such as aquatic invertebrates. During registration, bioaccumulation potential is often investigated using laboratory tests only. Recent studies showed that the magnitude of bioaccumulation in the field substantially differs from laborat...
In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of UV-LED-irradiated TiO2 in removing 24 commonly detected PPCPs in two water matrices (municipal wastewater effluent and Suwannee River NOM–synthetic water) and compared their performance with that of ultrapure water. Relatively fast removal kinetics were observed for 29% and 12% of the PPCPs in ultrap...
Effluents from municipal wastewater treatment plants (MWTPs) are complex mixtures of chemicals including endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) and 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2). The objective of this study was to evaluate selected responses of two fish species, in two different years, exposed in situ to MWTP effluent. Biological markers of exposure (p...
Removal of natural organic matter (NOM) in drinking water is an important objective imposed by water utilities due to plant operational problems, taste and odor issues. Photocatalysis using titanium dioxide (TiO2) has been increasingly explored in water treatment studies as a potential technology to remove NOM, with most studies employing 365 nm UV...
The combination of photocatalysis and biodegradation was investigated for the removal of nine selected pharmaceuticals as a means to reduce loadings into the environment. The combined process, consisting of a resource efficient mild photocatalysis and a subsequent biological treatment, was compared to single processes of intensive photocatalysis an...
The presence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in water remains a concern due to their potential threat to environmental and human health. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have been receiving attention in water treatment studies to remove PPCPs. However, most studies have been focused on pure water containing a limited number...
The presence of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) in aquatic systems has been a growing cause for concern. Advanced oxidation processes such as UV/TiO2 (ultraviolet light/titanium dioxide) can break down PPCPs into smaller constituents, reducing the pharmaceutical activity. However, this process is limited by low photonic efficiency...
In this study, the estrogenicity of two major wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents located in the central reaches of the Grand River watershed in southern Ontario was estimated using population demographics, excretion rates, and treatment plant-specific removals. Due to the lack of data on estrogen concentrations from direct measurements at...
Research on the use of titanium dioxide (TiO2) for water treatment has expanded to include the degradation of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs). PPCPs are typically introduced in aqueous solutions during TiO2 photocatalysis experiments using a water-miscible carrier solvent (e.g. methanol) to improve their solubility; however, carr...
Semiconductor photocatalysis such as ultraviolet/TiO2 (UV/TiO2) can be used in environmental remediation. It is an advanced oxidation process that can degrade organic contaminants through redox reactions. Unmodified TiO2 can only generate electron-hole pairs in the UV range so it has limited efficiency. Highly efficient materials are required for t...
Intersex in fish downstream of municipal wastewater treatment plants (MWWTPs) is a global concern. Consistent high rates of intersex in male rainbow darter (Etheostoma caeruleum) have been reported for several years in the Grand River, in southern Ontario, Canada, in close proximity to two MWWTPs. The larger MWWTP (Kitchener) recently underwent upg...
The occurrence of organic micropollutants (OMPs) in source waters has been associated
with upstream discharges from municipal wastewater treatment effluents and runoff from
agricultural and urban areas. Of emerging concern are pharmaceuticals, personal care products,
pesticides and industrial chemicals that comprise the majority of the current...
Organic contaminants and corrosion in water treatment effluents are a current global problem and the development of effective methods to facilitate the removal of organic contaminants and corrosion control strategies are required to mitigate this problem. TiO 2 nanomaterials that are exposed to UV light can generate electron-hole pairs, which under...
TiO2 nanowire membranes are multifunctional in that they provide liquid separation of contaminated water and treated water and the ability to oxidize or degrade organic pollutants. TiO2 nanowires exhibit greater photocatalytic efficiency compared to bulk materials due to the high surface area and size effects in the quantum scale. In this work, TiO...
Endocrine disruption and high occurrences of intersex have been observed in wild fish associated with municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents in urbanized reaches of rivers around the globe. These reproductive effects have often been attributed to the presence of estrogen receptor agonists in effluents. However, recent studies have is...
Projects
Projects (4)
The application of TiO2 in the form of a nanowire membrane is a promising new approach that is currently under development. However, the effectiveness of these membranes in removing specific contaminants of concern and their associated biological activity is unknown. In this project, we tested the efficiency of newly synthesized TiO2 nanowires and employed biological analysis (bioassays) to assess the presence of potentially bioactive transformation products after the treatment.
Toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics (TKTD) modelling is an underused tool in ecotoxicology that is gaining traction in environmental risk assessment. TKTD modelling can be coupled with fate models to determine a strong mechanistic linkage between fluctuating environmental exposure and observed effects. Through the funding from the ETH (Switzerland) and NSERC (Canada) postdoctoral fellowships, my research employs environmental fate modelling to estimate the temporally and spatially varying concentrations of frequently detected organic micropollutants (OMPs) in the aquatic environment. The estimates are coherently fed into a TKTD model that can predict (i) the time-varying internal concentrations in exposed organisms and (ii) the likelihood of toxic action based on those concentrations.
