Research

Our research is centered on the interface of environmental engineering and chemistry. We are broadly interested in topics related to water quality, contaminant fate, and wastewater surveillance. Our team consists of graduate and undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds. We collaborate with investigators from multiple disciplines such as Earth Sciences, Public Health, and Sociology as well as researchers from other institutions and research organizations.

Organic Micropollutants in Surface Waters and Groundwater

In collaboration with colleagues from the Upstate Freshwater Institute (UFI) and Prof. Sharon Moran from SUNY-ESF, we completed an exploratory study to evaluate the feasibility of establishing a citizen science program for monitoring organic micropollutants in New York inland lakes (article). We also collaborated with UFI to characterize the occurrence and fate of organic micropollutants in the Onondaga Lake-Three Rivers system (article). We are initiating a new collaborative project with UFI to delineate the occurrence of microplastics and organic micropollutants in Lake Ontario embayments. We also teamed up with Prof. Christa Kelleher and Prof. Rebecca Schewe to investigate how hydrological processes and human activities drive the occurrence of organic micropollutants in streams draining mixed-use watersheds (article). Lastly, we are collaborating with USGS scientists to study the impact of onsite wastewater treatment systems on the occurrence of organic micropollutants in shallow groundwater on Long Island. Beyond the projects based in the U.S., we also worked with colleagues from Makerere University in Uganda to map the occurrence patterns of organic micropollutants in the aquatic environment of Kampala (article). We develop suspect and/or nontarget screening methods based on liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) throughout these projects.

Our group operates and maintains two LC-HRMS instruments: an Orbitrap Exploris 240 mass spectrometer (hyphenated with an EQuan Max Plus system and an RSLCnano low-flow liquid chromatograph; supported by NSF Grant No. 2018497) and an LTQ-Orbitrap XL mass spectrometer (hyphenated with a high-performance liquid chromatograph and an EQuan Max Plus system).

Organic Matter in Browning Lake Watersheds

In collaboration with the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation, we are studying the photochemical and redox reactivity of organic matter in Adirondack lake watersheds recovering from historical atmospheric acid deposition. We are especially interested in understanding the roles of photochemically produced reactive intermediates in sunlight-driven contaminant transformation and biogeochemical processes (article) and the impacts of photochemical and microbial processing on the photoreactivity continuum of organic matter (article). We also surveyed the photoreactivity of inland lake water samples across New York. We are collaborating with colleagues from CU Boulder to study the aquatic photochemistry of harmful secondary metabolites produced by cyanobacteria (review article). We apply optical and electrochemical characterization techniques to study organic matter properties in these projects.

Wastewater Surveillance for Substance Use Assessment

We are part of the wastewater surveillance team led by colleagues from the School of Public Health. We were involved in earlier work on the method development for SARS-CoV-2 detection in wastewater (article) and wastewater sampling strategies (article). We developed a large-volume injection method based on LC-HRMS to quantify pharmaceuticals and lifestyle chemicals in wastewater collected during the early COVID-19 pandemic (article). With the scaling-up of a statewide wastewater surveillance platform in New York, we are pursuing further work to characterize substance consumption patterns and their relationships with sociodemographics and public health conditions.

Byproduct Formation and Control in Water Treatment Systems

​We are collaborating with wastewater treatment facilities to study the fate of N-nitroso derivatives and their precursors along treatment trains. We currently focus on the comparative analysis of chemiluminescence-based detection techniques (article) and the formation mechanisms of N-nitroso derivatives under conditions relevant to wastewater treatment and reuse.