William Anderson

William A. Anderson is a Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department and the former Director of Admissions for the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo.

With his expertise in photochemical (UV) and biological air and water pollution control and biochemical engineering of fermentation and pharmaceutical processes, Professor Anderson maintains industry research collaborations in the areas of hospital air emissions control, clinical water testing, residential air UV disinfection and agricultural resource recovery.

His recent projects include automated UV disinfection in hospitals, rapid detection of microbial contamination of water, removal of ammonia and selenium from water, and antimicrobial materials for use in engineered infection control.

A major emphasis of Professor Anderson’s work in pollution control technology for air treatment is reactor engineering for photocatalysis and photolysis, using an ultraviolet light irradiated catalyst to degrade organic contaminants at ambient temperatures.

In addition to his research work, Professor Anderson has written over 100 journal articles, referred conference proceedings and technical reports. He also has a blog that is widely read by current and prospective Waterloo Engineering undergraduates.

William Anderson is a member of the Waterloo Centre for Microbial Research.

• Photocatalysis
• Photoreaction engineering
• Antimicrobial materials
• Disinfection
• Air pollution control
• Biochemical Engineering
• Biomedical Engineering
• Green Reaction Engineering
• Nanoparticle synthesis
• Advanced Oxidation Processes for Wastewater and Air Treatment
• Photochemical Reactor Engineering
• Biofiltration
• Water
• Environmental Engineering
• Infection and Pathogen Control
• Devices

• 1991, Doctorate, Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo
• 1986, Master's, Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo
• 1981, Bachelor's, Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo

• CHE 775 - Research Topics in Environmental Engineering and Pollution Control
  • Taught in 2014, 2015
• CHE 480 - Process Analysis and Design
  • Taught in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018
• CHE 572 - Air Pollution Control
  • Taught in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018
• CHE 482 - Chemical Engineering Design Workshop
  • Taught in 2017
• CHE 672 - Air Pollution Control
  • Taught in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018

• Y. Bai, M. Moo-Young, W.A. Anderson, Characterization of power input and its impact on mass transfer in a rocking bioreactor, Chemical Engineering Science, 2019
• L. Zhang, C. Moralejo, W.A. Anderson, A review of the influence of humidity on photocatalytic decomposition of gaseous pollutants, Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2019
• E. Choi, Z. Tan, W.A. Anderson, Formation of secondary organic aerosols by germicidal ultraviolet light, Environments, 6, 2019
• Y. Bai, M. Moo-Young, W.A. Anderson, A mechanistic model for gas-liquid mass transfer prediction in a rocking disposable bioreactor, Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 116, 2019, 1986 - 1998
• Zhou, Qiong and Wen, John Z and Zhao, Pei and Anderson, William A, Synthesis of Vertically-Aligned Zinc Oxide Nanowires and Their Application as a Photocatalyst, Nanomaterials, 7(1), 2017
• F Tanvir, A Yaqub, S Tanvir, WA Anderson, Poly-L-arginine coated silver nanoprisms and their anti-bacterial properties, Nanomaterials, 7(10), 2017
• Tanvir, Fouzia and Yaqub, Atif and Tanvir, Shazia and Anderson, William A, Colorimetric enumeration of bacterial contamination in water based on β-galactosidase gold nanoshell activity, Enzyme and Microbial Technology, 99, 2017, 49 - 56
• Bustami, Y and Moo-Young, M and Anderson, WA, Analysis of the heterogeneous structure of iron oxide/gold nanoparticles and their application in a nanosensor, Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 245, 2017, 753 - 764
• Schmidt, Thomas and Anderson, William A, Biotrickling Filtration of Air Contaminated with 1-Butanol, Environments, 4(3), 2017
• Ragothaman, A and Anderson, WA, Air Quality Impacts of Petroleum Refining and Petrochemical Industries, Environments, 4(3), 2017
• W.A. Anderson, M. Mehrata, C. Moralejo, Halogenated Gas Control, A&WMA Ontario Managing Emissions - Reduction Strategies and Control, 11 2018, Guelph. (Accepted in 2018)
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