NEWS

Rachel Dean's new paper 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin Dechlorination is Differentially Enhanced by Dichlorobenzene Amendment in Passaic River, NJ Sediments was published in Environmental Science and Technology. Congratulations Rachel and co-authors Cassidy Schneider, Haider Almnehlawi and Professor Kat Dawson! Here is the story on Rutgers Today.

Rachel Dean has been awarded a Mark B. Bain Graduate Fellowship from the Hudson River Foundation 2018 - 2019. This fellowship is in support of her work on dioxin dechlorination by organohalide respiring bacteria in Passaic River sediments. Congratulations Rachel!

Congratulations to Aresty Research Fellow JC Miranda for completing his research on dioxin dechlorination in Passaic River sediments. JC also completed his BS in Environmental Science this Spring, 2019. Congratulations JC we will miss you!

Cassidy Schneider, an undergraduate in Bioenvironmental Engineering, successfully completed her honors thesis through the James J. Slade Scholars Program within the Rutgers University School of Engineering in April 2018. She also graduated with her BS in BEE and has entered the MS program in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rutgers! Congratulations Cassidy we will miss you!

Cassidy Schneider (with Donna Fennell) presenting her work on

Dechlorination of Lightly Chlorinated Dioxins in Enriched Sediments of the Passaic River

at the James J. Slade Scholars Program,

Rutgers University School of Engineering.

Kevin Dillon has been awarded an Air Pollution Education Research Grant (APERG) from the Mid-Atlantic Air and Waste Management Association for his project “Photosynthetic and methanotrophic microbial activity in the atmosphere”. This award is a competitive air pollution scholarship for Ph.D. students or post-doctoral scientists that study air pollution, air quality, and the atmosphere. Congratulations Kevin! UPDATE: Kevin earned this award in both 2017-2018 AND 2018-2019. Congratulations Kevin!

Kevin Dillon hiking in central France

Kevin Dillon in the lab

Huge congratulations to PhD candidate Kevin Dillon who has recently been awarded two fellowships!!

Kevin was a recipient of a prestigious Chateaubriand Fellowship in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics & Biology-Health (STEM) from the Office for Science & Technology (OST) of the Embassy of France. The title of his project is “Microbial Activity in the Atmosphere.” Kevin will be working with faculty Advisors Donna Fennell, of Rutgers University and Dr. Anne-Marie DeLort of the Université Clermont Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France. Kevin will be working on his research in France for six months in 2018. Kevin has also been awarded a graduate fellowship from the Air and Waste Management Association for his work on microorganisms in air - especially addressing their role in mitigation of greenhouse gasses (see above). Kevin is in the Microbial Biology Graduate Program. Here is he is seated on a throne in a medieval castle in the Auvergne region of France.

Congratulations to Rachel Dean who has been awarded a 2017 New Jersey Water Resources Research Institute Graduate Student Grant-in-Aid!!

Rachel Dean

AND... last year doctoral student Haider Almnehlawi was awarded a 2016 New Jersey Water Resources Research Institute Graduate Student Grant-in-Aid!! Here he is presenting his research at ASM Microbe in Boston in June 2016. Congratulations to both Rachel and Haider!!

Kevin Dillon was awarded the 2016 Hachnasarian Award by the Microbial Biology Graduate Program. This award is for Microbial Biology Graduate Students with top academic performance in the first year. Here is Kevin working in the laboratory.

Kevin Dillon and Dr. Valdis Krumins

Several laboratory members and collaborators presented their research at ASM Microbe in Boston in June 2016. We had a wonderful time!

Dr. Valdis Krumins

Cassidy Schneider an undergraduate in Bioenvironmental Engineering paid a visit to Professor Ute Lechner of Martin Luther University in Leipzig, Germany during the summer of 2016. She worked with Lechner lab members to optimize culturing strategies for organohalide respiring bacteria--and had a wonderful time!

Congratulations to our two Aresty Research Fellows for 2015-2016 who have now completed their studies at Rutgers. Rosalina Caba and Samson Ogungbile performed research related to dioxin dechlorination in aquatic sediments. Here they are presenting their work at the Rutgers Undergraduate Research Symposium.

Samson Ogungbile and Rosalina Caba

Congratulations to Riddhima Rao who completed an undergraduate research internship through Douglass College Project Super in 2016. Here she is presenting her work at the Douglass College Research Symposium.

Riddhima Rao (mentored by Haider Salman AL mnehlawi).

Congratulations to Dr. Sunirat Rattana who now has an officially approved dissertation! She has shared some photos of her work with colleagues as Environmental Officer (Experienced Level) at The Environmental Office Region 13 (Chonburi), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Thailand. We miss you!

Congratulations to our former lab member Amanda Luther! Her paper from her work at Ghent University is now published in Water Research.

Our new paper on aniline degradation is up at Environmental Science and Technology

Congratulations to Weimin Sun and Yun Li!

Congratulations to Haider Almnehlawi for passing his Q-Exam!

Our National Science Foundation grant following up on our work on microbes in air was funded!

Sunirat Rattana and Amanda Luther have moved on to new positions!

We will miss them!

Amanda Luther Ph.D. and Sunirat Rattana Ph.D.

Amanda Luther, Donna Fennell and Sunirat Rattana

Cassidy Schneider our undergraduate research fellow presented her poster at the spring Douglass STEM meeting!

Cassidy Schneider

Donna Fennell was recently quoted in a Star Ledger article about a possible bioremediation study in the Passaic River.

"Passaic River polluters funding bacteria study to clean up toxic mess."

Passaic River, NJ

Our paper "Substrate-Dependent rRNA Production in an Airborne Bacterium" has been published in ES&T Letters. Congratulations to Dr. Valdis Krumins!!

Substrate-Dependent rRNA Production in an Airborne Bacterium

Congratulations and thank you to our two undergraduate fellows! They both finished their projects and gave final presentations.

Faria Nusrat (mentored by Sunirat Rattana).

Maytal Merhav (mentored by Dr. Valdis Krumins).

We have two wonderful undergraduates this summer!

Rutgers REU Fellow in the Green Energy Technology Undergraduate Program (GET-UP), Faria Nusrat.

Faria is characterizing stress genes in ammonia-stressed anaerobic microbial communities.

Faria Nusrat (mentored by Sunirat Rattana).

And...

Rutgers Aresty Fellow, Maytal Merhav.

Maytal is characterizing bioaerosols collected from outdoor air and enriched on greenhouse gases.

Maytal Merhav (mentored by Dr. Valdis Krumins).

Congratulations to our graduates in 2014!!!

Yun Li, Ph.D.

Mpho Batlhophi, M.S.

Donna Fennell and Val Krumins took their students to visit the Newtown Creek WWTP in Brooklyn on April 25, 2014. Thanks to plant superintendent Jim Pynn for giving the tour and BEE alumna Lailani Metzler for organizing our visit!

Donna Fennell is Chair of Division Q Applied and Environmental Microbiology for the American Society for Microbiology. Her session at ASM is entitled "A Strange Place for a Picnic: Microbial Appetites in Tough Neighborhoods". The session will feature a young investigator talk by Dr. Valdis Krumins!

Congratulations to Dr. Yun Li!!!!! Dissertation defended, revised, approved and will graduate May 2013!!!!!

Dr. Li finished her PhD in the Environmental Sciences Graduate Program.

Yun Li

Congratulations to Mpho Batlhophi who passed her MS exam and will graduate this May 2013 from the Microbial Biology Graduate Program!

Mpho Batlhophi and Donna Fennell

Dr. Weimin Sun gave an invited talk about identifying aniline degrading bacteria using SIP at the Theobald Smith Society (American Society for Microbiology) Meeting in Miniature on April 3, 2014.

Sunirat Rattana presented both a talk and a poster about her work on ammonia-tolerant microbial communities at the 29th International Conference on Solid Waste Technology and Management Mar.30-Apr.2, 2014. Philadelphia, PA!

Sunirat Rattana

Doctoral candidate Amanda Luther a Biofuels IGERT Fellow at Rutgers will be working in Belgium this year at LabMet in the Laboratory of Professor Korneel Rabaey.