UC Berkeley Water Research and Opportunities Portal

Examination of major disease-related of diverse eco-systems and the biological responses of human populations to these stresses: arctic, high-altitude, arid zones, grasslands, humid tropics, urban.

The health effects of environmental alterations caused by development programs and other human activities in both developing and developed areas. Case studies will contextualize methodological information and incorporate a global perspective on environmentally mediated diseases in diverse populations. Topics include water management; population change; toxics; energy development; air pollution; climate change; chemical use, etc.

Introduction to California geography, environment, and society, past and future climates, and the potential impacts of 21st-century climate change on ecosystems and human well-being. Topics include fundamentals of climate science and the carbon cycle; relationships between human and natural systems, including water supplies, agriculture, public health, and biodiversity; and the science, law, and politics of possible solutions that can reduce the magnitude and impacts of climate change.

Conducted in cooperation with University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and American University of Beirut (AUB), this project- and case- based virtual exchange course will offer students the unique opportunity to learn about issues surrounding global health and conflict in the Middle East and North Africa while participating in a meaningful cross-cultural exchange. Looking at a range of topics related to the subject, the course will be comprised primarily of expert lectures, case studies, and an interdisciplinary group project, in which UC Berkeley students team up with medical students at UCSF and public health graduate students at AUB. Offered through Interdisciplinary Social Science Programs.

General biology of freshwater and marine algae, highlighting current research and integrating phylogeny, ecology, physiology, genetics, and molecular biology.

The course covers monitoring, control and regulatory policy of microbial, chemical and radiological drinking water contaminants. Additional subjects include history and iconography of safe water, communicating risks to water consumers and a bottled water versus tap water taste test as part of the discussion on aesthetic water quality parameters. A field trip to a local water treatment plant in included.

Although often unseen, microbes are everywhere! This course covers the role that microbes, including archaea, bacteria, protists and fungi, play in terrestrial, marine and extreme environments and their effect on the geochemistry of the earth. In addition, we will explore the profound effects of microbes on human and plant health and how microbes have changed the course of human history.

The course covers monitoring, control and regulatory policy of microbial, chemical and radiological drinking water contaminants. Additional subjects include history and iconography of safe water, communicating risks to water consumers and a bottled water versus tap water taste test as part of the discussion on aesthetic water quality parameters.

Kara Nelson focuses on addresses innovative strategies to improve the sustainability of urban water infrastructure, including technologies for potable and non-potable water reuse, nutrient recovery, decentralized systems, intermittent water supply, household water treatment, and affordable sanitation. In particular, Dr. Nelson’s research focuses on the control of waterborne pathogens, including mechanisms of pathogen inactivation and new detection methods.

Her projects include:
1) A WASH project looking at impact of improved sanitation interventions on transmission of enteric pathogens from human and animal sources through a randomized controlled trial in rural Bangladesh
2) Influence of intermittent water supply (IWS) on the diversity and dynamics of the IWS microbiome.
3) The impacts of DPR systems on microbial water quality through research on methods of advanced microbial water quality assessment.

Michael Manga focuses on a variety of topics across the Earth and Planetary Department including hydrogeology and human-induced earthquakes, groundwater, rivers, geysers, woody-debris flow in water systems, and extra-planetary sources of water.

His projects include:
1) An extra-planetary project that studies planets made of ice that have oceans under them and the moons of Saturn and Jupiter, as well as past water-systems and current water on Mars.
2) A project on studying the effects of wood on water systems, looking into the effect woody debris has on the flow of systems and how it alters river channels. The Pacific North-West is a main study area for the research, while it is in the early stages of research in California.
3) An ongoing project to study the effects of earthquakes on water systems. His study on human-induced earthquakes and fracking includes looking at the amount of water used to achieve the desired products, as well as how the wastewater is disposed of. Additionally, he has been monitoring earthquake activity within the East Bay where he measures the fluctuations and increases on the flow of water at the Alum Rock springs.

Isha Ray focuses on water, sanitation and development; water and gender; technology and development; and common property resources. Her research projects focus on access to water and sanitation for the rural and urban poor, and on the role of technology in improving livelihoods.

Her projects include:
1) Governance of Wastewater Reuse systems in India with an emphasis on the institutional aspects of water reuse in rural regions.
2) Central Valley of California projects focuses around assessing the affordability of drinking water in rural communities and best methods for supplying drinking water. Additionally, a separate project is conducting field-trial arsenic mitigation methods and systems implementation in historically marginalized, rural communities.
3) A Joint ongoing project in collaboration with China CDC and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University conducting microbial bacteriology studies on rural drinking water along with behavioral interventions of safe drinking water methods. Emphasis is on evaluating key vulnerabilities of water systems and expanding safe drinking water methods from rural to institution (hospitals, schools) settings.

David Levine focuses on how industrialization has affected children in newly industrializing nations, particularly Indonesia. He has also conducted evaluations in Cambodia, Ghana, Kenya, and Senegal, exploring the impacts of programs promoting micro-health insurance, hunger alleviation, safe water, and solar ovens.

His projects include:
1) School health curriculums for India
2) Causes and effects of investments in health and education
3) Obstacles to good management

Charlotte Smith focuses on impact assessment and evaluation of water systems and public health in urban and rural Mexican and Central American communities. She studies microbial ecology of waterborne pathogens and bacterial endosymbionts of free-living protozoa with a focus on microbial and chemical contamination of water.

Her projects include:
1) A joint Universidad Jesuita de Guadalajara (ITESO)/UCB project exploring the environmental, occupational, and behavioral factors that are associated with diarrheal and kidney diseases in rural communities on the bank of Lake Chapala. Three UCB MPH students fulfilled their MPH practicum requirement and launched the project with interdisciplinary ITESO collaborators and local NGOs.
2) A joint project with REACH in Tanzania working on improved water quality and assessing public health relations.

Alison Post focuses on a variety of water related research agendas that includes analyzing water distribution in Latin America, urban planning, and water politics in India. Post’s current research is looking at the ways in which water resources as a political entity and how it intersects with urban planning at the human level.

Her projects include:
1) Water intermittency in India with Professor Isha Ray. A field experiment into the effects of text message alerts to individual community members about when they can expect water services. Related research into the role of street-level bureaucrats in operating/prioritizing water service and their relationship to the communities they serve.
2) Implications of how infrastructure and utility agencies manage competing risks (including earthquakes, wildfires, cyberattacks) and how they prioritize their address of risk.
3) Political implications for rapid urbanization in the developing world; particularly how policy-making operates in small- and medium-size cities where the bulk of population growth is occurring in the developing world. Looking into why small towns and medium-sized cities are spending much more money on public health and education in comparison to water security and distribution.

Jack Colford focuses on waterborne infectious diseases in domestic, developing country and recreational water settings. He specializes in large-field randomized control trials at the individual and community level.

His projects include:
1) WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hand Washing) Intervention analysis. Interventions have been carried out in rural Kenya and Bangladesh which include the implementation of chlorine based water treatments, hand washing stations with community training, double pit latrines, and Enov’Nutributter supplements.
2) Recreational water studies on gastrointestinal disease transmission and infection among users including swimmers, surfers, and beach use.

The Bay Area Water Quality Fellowship is open to graduate students whose studies are related specifically to water quality issues that affect the San Francisco Bay. It is intended to support scientific research in the following topics:
-the exposure or effect, if any, of organisms within the San Francisco Bay estuary to selenium, metals, and/or organic chemicals through food chain transfer
-the degree, if any, to which sediments are a source of exposure for organisms within the San Francisco Bay estuary to selenium, metals, and/or organic chemicals
-other research that involves the effect of pollution on the San Francisco Bay estuary and/or its ecosystem.

Applications are due at the beginning of Spring semester. Recipients will receive $15,000 for the following Fall semester. The award can be used as a payment for registration fees and/or stipend.

CERCH is a world leader in researching and highighting key aspects of environmental health risks, especially as they impact pregnant women and their children. To accomplish this mission, CERCH investigates exposures to future parents and children and evaluate long term effects on child health, behavior, and development. We work to help key stakeholders translate our research findings into sustainable strategies to reduce environment-related childhood disease, directly involving local communities in the process. CERCH prioritizes engaging communities to inform study design, implementation, and dissemination and helping to identify key solutions to pressing environmental issues.

Currently CERCH is investigating drinking water and birth outcomes with attention to drinking water data involving nitrates and arsenic.

CERCH plans to expand research into:
-Nitrates in Salinas Valley water
-Use of produced water in agriculture
-Pharmaceuticals in potable or irrigation water from recycled wastewater

Opportunity for programmatic use of the reserve. Available for research use with faculty sponsorship. Central idea to facilitate research.
Considering areas where they can encourage grants program to fund student research availability.
Stewardship opportunities available-SAs live and work on the reserve to maintain

The UC Berkeley Superfund Research Center is an NIEHS-funded program studying the toxic effects of Superfund chemicals (including drinking water contaminants) on human health and innovative approaches to environmental remediation. Our Center has been continuously funded for over 30 years. In our current funding cycle, we have identified four complex problems associated with hazardous waste sites that have proven intractable to current methods. These problems are how to better assess: 1) cumulative impacts from multiple environmental stressors (e.g. chemical exposures, stress and obesity); 2) past exposures, especially early-life exposures and their contribution to risk; 3) the effects of chemical mixtures and their impact on remediation efforts; and, 4) the complex transformation of chemicals to reactive intermediates and their ability to act through multiple mechanistic pathways. Our six interactive projects (4 biomedical and 2 engineering) and 5 cores, are addressing these issues through original research, translation to appropriate end-users and community engagement efforts.

Graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who work with a Center PI on a Superfund-related project are considered Superfund Trainees. The Trainee Core, under the leadership of Professor Luoping Zhang, offers trans-disciplinary mentorship, education, and training in environmental health, environmental toxicology, environmental engineering and data science as well as professional development and leadership opportunities. Trainees have hosted a booth at CalDay for the past two years and have presented their work at the NIEHS Superfund Research Program Annual Meetings each year.