This year Information Day for our partners was held virtually as well and was comprised of two different webinars. The first webinar was held on November 3rd and was facilitated by UW NSERC Chair Dr. Peter Huck. Guest speaker was Dr. Philippe Van Cappellen, Canada Excellence Research Chair Laureate in Ecohydrology, Ph.D.
Dr. Van Cappellen leads the research program in ecohydrology at the University of Waterloo and his presentation titled “Environmental Microplastics and Nanoplastics: Knowns and Unknowns” initially delved into plastics and microplastics pollution in marine environments, and also covered nanoplastics. Dr. Van Cappellen expanded on the environmental effect of microplastics and nanonplastics pollution in freshwater and terrestrial systems, and also introduced the microplastics research project in which the Chair is participating.
Other speakers included Kimia Aghasadeghi, Water Treatment Specialist, Ph.D. candidate Mahmoud Badawy, and M.A.Sc. candidate Mitchell Cooke from Wilfrid Laurier University jointly supervised by Prof. Robin Slawson from WLU and Dr. Peter Huck. Kimia talked about evolving a plant to address extreme events and long-term raw water quality changes. Specifically, she elaborated on a framework for capital change planning to address extreme weather events and long-term raw water quality changes for drinking water providers. Mahmoud and Mitchell presented their research on the potential interrelations between orthophosphate addition, chloramine decay, biofilm growth and nitrification in a bench-scale drinking water distribution system.
Our second webinar was held on November 17th and was facilitated by Dr. Sigrid Peldszus, Research Associate Professor at the Chair, and Dr. Peter Huck. Graduate student speakers were: Ph.D. candidate Nastaran Mozavari Nezamabad, Ph.D. candidate Kirti Nemani and M.A.Sc. candidate Noshin Nawar, post-doctoral fellow Katarzyna Jaszczyszyn, and last but not least, Ph.D. candidate Hemant Arora.
Nastaran talked about understanding the role of natural organic matter in lead release in drinking water distribution systems. Kirti and Noshin gave a presentations on robustness in drinking water treatment systems, each working with different industrial partners, Katarzyna described her work related to the removal of microcystin-LR via powdered activated carbon, whereas Hemant presented on manganese removal using biofilters.
Our second virtual Information Day was indeed a success. Thank you to everyone who was part of it, especially to our industry partners and their ongoing support. Also, thank you to our guest speakers and students for all their hard work.