Master’s student Laura DiGiacomo took first prize in the WEASC poster competition held at the South Carolina Environmental Conference in Myrtle Beach, SC. She presented her work on landfill leachate pretreatment methods to improve efficiency of PFAS destruction technologies.

After some daunting pandemic related delays, we finally welcome new PhD student Eman Alhamdan to the Cates Group! Eman holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Jordan University of Science and Technology, and a M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Alabama Huntsville.

A paper by our group, titled “Quantification and modeling of the response of surface biofilm growth to continuous low intensity UVC irradiation” was selected as UV Paper of the Year (2020) by the International Ultraviolet Association. The paper can be found here

The Cates Lab is excited to welcome two new students, joining in summer 2021!

Ehsan Bouteh (PhD student)

Laura Digiacomo (Master’s student)

(See group page for more info)

This new journal is part of an expansion of the parent JHM journal. More information can be found here: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-hazardous-materials-advances

We are excited to announce that Michael Bentel has joined the research group, starting in January 2021. Dr. Bentel earned his PhD in Environmental Engineering from the University of California Riverside, and brings expertise in chemical reaction mechanisms of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). At Clemson, he will explore new materials and improved mechanistic understanding of photocatalytic and hydrothermal approaches to PFAS destruction.

Article may be found here: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsestengg.0c00086

The Cates Lab is pleased to announce that two new PhD students have joined the group and will conduct research toward their degrees in Environmental Engineering and Science:

Yufei Sui comes with a Masters in Environmental Engineering from the University of Florida.

Marc Mason joined after completing his B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Clemson.

We are proud to announce that PhD student Hamed Torkzadeh received the 2nd place award for best student presentation at the International Ultraviolet Society’s Americas Conference in Orlanda, FL. Hamed presented his ongoing research on “Opportunistic pathogen deterrence in premise plumbing using UVC point-of-use devices: Minimum surface irradiation intensities for biofilm prevention”. The award was presented by Ron Hoffman, President, IUVA.