Water Security: Resources and Quality

Ensuring secure and sustainable water systems is a global scientific challenge. Missouri S&T is developing new technologies for water treatment, sanitation, and urban water systems, as well as formulating innovative water management solutions for agricultural and industrial users.

Meet the Experts

Baojun Bai

Professor
Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering

Research Interests

Water management; conformance control; enhanced oil recovery (EOR); CO2 EOR and storage; geological carbon storage; fluid flow in porous media;  unconventional oil and gas development

David Borrok

Vice Provost and Dean
College of Engineering and Computing

Research Interests

Water sustainability, food-energy-water nexus, water resources, water quality and geochemistry, geomicrobiology,  water-rock interactions in petroleum systems, geochemistry of hydrocarbon-generating source rocks, water quality and geochemistry, water stress and scarcity, water-rock interactions

Joel Burken

Curators' Professor and Department Chair
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

Research Interests

Phytoforensics subsurface contaminant transport; smart living; green infrastructure; phytoremediation and natural treatment systems; biological wastewater treatment; constructed wetlands; green remediation; remote sensing or environmental pollutants; site restoration

Mark Fitch

Associate Professor
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

Research Interests

Passive biological treatment of pollutants, metals removal from mine-impacted waters

Stephen Gao

Interim Chair and Curators' Distinguished Teaching Professor
Computer Science

Research Interests

Geophysical exploration of the Earth’s interior, earthquake seismology, crustal and mantle deformation

Katherine Grote

Associate Professor
Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering

Research Interests

Geophyical solutions for water sustainability, increasing water supply using remote sensing data, improving water quality through geospatial analysis, groundwater and near surface geophysics, specifically in applying these techniques to promote sustainable agriculture and environmental protection

Daniel Oerther

Professor
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

Research Interests

Environmental biotechnology and sustainable development with a special emphasis on water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH); food safety, security and nutrition; and poverty alleviation using design thinking and social entrepreneurship

Guney Olgun

Assistant Professor
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

Research Interests

Energy geotechnology and sustainability; geotechnical earthquake engineering; energy geotechnology; disaster resilience; resilience of Earthen water infrastructure

Jianmin Wang

Professor
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

Research Interests

Anaerobic waste to energy conversion; transforming wastewater to fresh water; water reuse; metal fate in solid-water interface; energy efficient water treatment; decentralized treatment; eutrophication; sustainable technologies for advanced wastewater treatment; synergistic toxic effect of nanoparticles and heavy metals; fate and transport of heavy metals in natural and engineered system

Xiong Zhang

James A. Heidman Professor
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

Research Interests

Climate-soil-structure interaction, soil mechanics, transportation geotechnics,advanced testing techniques for Geo-material characterization, constitutive and numerical modeling of multiphase materials, transportation geotechnics, remote sensing techniques in geotechnical engineering