JOON AHN
LUIS ARELLANO
MEE-RYE PARK
Dr. Joon focuses on biological framework development for treating hydrofracking wastewater and meta-omics survey of anaerobic digestion and fermentation processes for resource recovery. Previously, at New York University, he conducted research on human diseases from the viewpoint of chemical engineering. He received his Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Columbia University
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
Email: la2621@columbia.edu
Dr. Luis Arellano is researching specific mechanisms of aerobic and anaerobic (de)nitrifying microorganisms in response to environmental changes. Previously he worked in a wastewater specific field: "biofiltration of sulfide odors".
PhD student
Email: mp3178@columbia.edu
Mee-Rye works on investigating microbial structure, function and metabolic pathways of engineered biological nitrogen treatment processes by combined metagenomic and metatranscriptomic approaches. She worked on molecular and kinetic characterization of nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) for out-selecting NOB in energy efficient nitrogen removal systems such as anammox and nitritation-denitritation processes
SHASHWAT VAJPEYI
CATHERINE HOAR
MEDINI ANNAVAJHALA
PhD student
Email: smv2121@columbia.edu
Shashwat's work broadly focuses upon resource recovery. He works on transformation of organic waste into lipids by studying the transcriptome and proteome level changes in response to environmental stress. This work has led to two patents and he is now working on a startup CarboCycle, which utilizes this technology to produce commercial grade lipids.
PhD student
Email: cah2216@columbia.edu
Catherine received her BS degree in environmental engineering from Tufts University in 2013 and her MS from Columbia University in 2015. Her current research interests include the fate of emerging contaminants in wastewater and the environment, focusing on the role of microbial communities in microconstituent biodegradation.
PhD student
Email: mka2136@columbia.edu
Medini's focus has been the development and application of next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics techniques to the understanding of mixed microbial communities involved in the removal and recovery of nutrients from waste streams.Eventually, Medini would like to pursue a faculty position to apply her background in environmental meta-omics to global, sustainable sanitation projects.
YU-CHEN SU
EIRENE PAVLAKIS
RANRAN HU
PhD student
Email: ys2674@columbia.edu
Yu-Chen is working on bioconversion of methane to methanol as an alternative and sustainable carbon source for resource-efficient wastewater treatment. His research is focused on investigating methane cometabolism in ammonia oxidizing bacteria using system biology tools and the application of biomethanol production for biological nitrogen removal.
PhD student
Email: eap2157@columbia.edu
Eirene received her B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from National Technical University of Athens, Greece, in 2011, and an M.Sc. degree in Earth and Environmental Engineering from Columbia University. She works on recovery of high value carbon products from waste streams and more specifically production of bioplastics (PHA) from primary sludge and food waste. Her research interests include resources recovery, wastewater treatment technologies and microbial genome sequencing.
PhD student
Email: rh2646@columbia.edu
Ranran received his B.E. in biological engineering from Wuyuzhang Honor college, Sichuan University. He is currently working on microbial ecology and function of green infrastructure, the engineering systems that help to manage rainwater in order to minimize combined sewer overflows.
ZHEQIN LI
MATTHEW BAIDEME
CHENGHUA LONG
PhD student
Email: zl2297@columbia.edu
Zheqin received his B.S. degree in Environmental Engineering from NanJing University and M.S. degree in Earth and Environmetnal Engineering from Columiba University.  His general research area is nitrogen removal in waster water treatment plant, and is currently investigating the applicability of anammox process in mainstream wastewater treatment.
PhD student
Email: mpb2177@columbia.edu
Matt is an active duty Army officer whose work focuses on the treatment of nitrogen-based waste streams through a combination of partial denitrification and annamox treatment techniques. Â His current efforts are on molecular and kinetic characterization of the systems to better define appropriate process controls.
PhD student
Email: cl3402@columbia.edu
Chenghua Long, Ph.D. candidate, is working on denitrification and anammox process