Alumni Bulletin - Winter 2009 - (Page 17)

SCIENCE • TECHNOLOGY • ENVIRONMENT • PO Construction is under way on the $62.1 million STEPS facility. On the following pages, you’ll meet just a few of the Lehigh researchers who are already making a contribution to solving global problems. Writers Jack Croft, Tricia Long, Rob Nichols, and Kurt Pfitzer contributed to the STEPS profiles. Why it matters Rating System, which is considered the standard for sustainable architecture in the United States. (For a detailed look at the new building, see page 22.) Of course, there is a very practical reason for the new facility: Lehigh’s science labs, like those at many universities, are outdated and scattered across campus. “There’s a national trend to renew science facilities built in the 1970s,” Meltzer says. “Science has changed dramatically and the infrastructure doesn’t support it.” While launching such an ambitious and important project in the midst of the current global financial crisis is certainly less than ideal, Gast said the troubled times only underscore the importance of the STEPS initiative. “As a nation and as a world, we will need to come out of the current financial crisis focusing our attention on solving the fundamental problems of our planet—pollution, climate change, disease, and hunger,” Gast says. “Lehigh is very strong in this type of work, and we are eager to make our contributions even greater.” Kristen Jellison Julie Napotnik FURNISHING CLEAN WATER From the bustling urban center of Philadelphia to remote villages in rural Honduras, Kristen Jellison is working on ways to bring clean drinking water to people. In a project funded by the Philadelphia Water Department, Jellison, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, is attempting to determine the sources of Cryptosporidium—a common and hardy parasite that can be deadly for people with weakened immune systems—in the city’s water supply. Oocysts of Cryptosporidium can pass through water-treatment systems without being eradicated and are resistant to chlorine, so they are not easily disinfected. Jellison extracts the parasite’s DNA, sequences it, and compares it to the DNA of Cryptosporidium from various animal hosts. Jellison can then make an educated guess as to which animals may have contaminated the water samples studied. In a related project funded by the National Science Foundation, Jellison is studying the effect of biofilms, which are sticky layers of bacteria that grow on solid surfaces immersed in water, on Cryptosporidium fate and transport. Through her work as co-advisor of Engineers Without Borders, Jellison and her students are part of a multidisciplinary Lehigh team working to improve the water supply of Pueblo Nuevo, Honduras. The large, concrete household sand filters often used in developing countries to produce cleaner water are expensive and weigh up to 200 pounds, which severely limits their widespread use, especially considering they are often hauled on the backs of villagers. Jellison is working to make “smaller, cheaper, and lighter” filters that would be far more portable and accessible “for the poorest people in the world,” she says. Julie Napotnik, who is working with Jellison while pursuing her Ph.D. in environmental engineering, says the new STEPS building will greatly enhance the collaboration required to address such problems, thanks to its larger, more modern laboratory spaces, coupled with bringing together professors and students representing different academic disciplines under one roof. For Kristen Jellison, the payoff for her research into making clean water cheaper and more accessible to the poor couldn’t be more tangible. “If people can have clean water, they can lead more productive lives. Adults can work and earn money. Children can go to school,” she says. “It just makes families more productive and healthy. And that makes communities thrive.” Understanding how Cryptosporidium is transmitted through water will help scientists design better watershed management strategies to prevent humans from being exposed to the potentially deadly parasite, she says.

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Lehigh Bulletin - Winter 2009 Contents From the President's Desk Mailbox On Campus Research Arts & Culture Sports Teaming Up to Tackle Global Challenges Positively 4th Street A Sweet Job From the Publisher's Desk Alumni News

Alumni Bulletin - Winter 2009

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