News

2020

December 2020

  • Joey successfully defended his M.Sc. thesis on temporal and spatial changes in microbial communities in high-solids anaerobic digestion. Congratulations, Joey!
  • Calvin successfully defended his M.Sc. thesis on a microbial electrochemical biosensor for naphthenic acid detection. Congratulations, Calvin!

November 2020

  • Qi received the Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship from the FGSR. Congratulations, Qi!
  • A journal article on Peijun’s thesis research has been accepted for publication in Bioresource Technology. Congratulations, Peijun!

  • Mayank successfully defended his M.Sc. thesis on greywater treatment using an integrated bioelectrochemical-biofilter process. Congratulations, Mayank!
  • Dr. Dhar gave a Distinguished Alumni Lecture hosted by the Department of Chemical Engineering (ChE) at Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET). Dr. Dhar sincerely thanks his alma mater for this opportunity to share his research with faculty members, current and former students of ChE BUET.

October 2020

  • Basem successfully passed his doctoral candidacy exam and officially became a Ph.D. candidate. Congratulations, Basem!

September 2020

  • Calvin received the Westmoreland Coal Company Graduate Scholarship in Environmental Engineering from the FGSR. Congratulations, Calvin!
  • Basem has been nominated for the Donald R Stanley Graduate Scholarship in Environmental (Civil) Engineering for the second year in a row. Congratulations, Basem!
  • Bappi Chowdhury, our recent M.Sc. graduate, started a new position in EPCOR as FCF Operations Engineer. Congratulations, Bappi!
  • Basem’s paper on an intermittent power supply scheme to minimize electrical energy input in a microbial electrolysis cell assisted anaerobic digester has been accepted for publication in Bioresource Technology. Congratulations, Basem!

August 2020

  • Qi’s review article on high-strength wastewater treatment in microbial electrolysis cells coupled with anaerobic digester has been accepted for publication in Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology. Congratulations, Qi!

  • Seyed received Parya Foundation Scholarship. Congratulations, Seyed!

July 2020

  • Joey’s paper has been accepted for publication in Bioresource Technology. Congratulations, Joey!

  • Nervana Haffiez joined the lab as an M.Sc. student. Welcome, Nervana!

June 2020 

  • Basem presented his work “A cycling on-off power supply scheme for electrochemically enhanced anaerobic digestion” at the Virtual Bioenergy Symposium organized by Biomass Energy Network.

  • Basem received Andrew Stewart Memorial Graduate Prize from the FGSR. Congratulations, Basem!
  • Calvin’s paper on naphthenic acid biosensor has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry. Congratulations, Calvin!
  • Peijun Zhou successfully defended her thesis on the high-temperature thermal hydrolysis process for improving anaerobic digestion in a wastewater treatment plant with existing primary sludge fermentation. Congratulations, Peijun!
  • A review paper of Calvin and Mohmed has been accepted for publication in Bioresource Technology. Congratulations on their excellent teamwork!

  • Dr. Dhar awarded APEGA Summit Early Accomplishment Award 2020 for his research achievements in bioenergy and value-added resource recovery. The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA) regulates the practices of engineering and geoscience in the Province of Alberta. Dr. Dhar sincerely acknowledges the contributions of all current and former lab members, academic collaborators, industry partners, funding agencies, and UofA’s civil and environmental engineering department in achieving this award.

May 2020 

  • Basem’s paper has been accepted for publication in the Science of the Total Environment. Congratulations, Basem!

  • Clavin received the Leonard E. Gads Teaching Assistant Award for his outstanding performance as a TA. Congratulations, Calvin!
  • A collaborative work done by Bappi, Sarmad, and Joey has been accepted for publication in the Processes journal. Congratulations, Chowdhury et al.!

April 2020 

  • Clavin has been selected for a 2020 Graduate Student Teaching Award (GSTA) for his outstanding efforts as a teaching assistant in ENV E 324 (Biological Processes) course in Fall 2019. Calvin is the first recipient of this award from our lab. Congratulations, Calvin!

March 2020 

  • Qi’s research article has been accepted for publication in Water Environment Research Journal. Congratulations, Qi!

  • Calvin received the Alberta Innovates Graduate Scholarship, a prestigious scholarship supported by the provincial government. Congratulations, Calvin!

February 2020 

  • Calvin has been selected as the recipient of the Yu-An Farms Scholarship from The Korean Canadian Scholarship Foundation (KCSF). Congratulations, Calvin!
  • Dhar Lab presented two oral presentations and three posters at the 55th Central Canadian Water Quality Conference in Toronto, ON. Dr. Dhar gave an invited talk on anaerobic digestion. Joey won second prize in the poster competition. Congratulations, Joey!

January 2020 

  • M.Sc. student Bappi Chowdhury successfully defended his thesis. Congratulations, Bappi!
  • Our recent research is featured in UofA folio.

2019

December 2019

  • Sajib Barua, a former M.Sc. student from our lab, started a new position in Bioindustrial Innovation Canada as a junior project engineer. Congratulations, Sajib!

November 2019

  • Long’s article on temperature-dependent (20-55°C) electrocatalytic characteristics of methanogenic biomass grown on conductive carbon fibers has been accepted for publication in Chemical Engineering Journal. Congratulations, Long!
  • John’s review article on thermophilic anaerobic digestion has been accepted for publication in Energy for Sustainable Development journal. Congratulations, John!

October 2019

  • Bappi was awarded the Lalmohan Samantaraya International Graduate Award in Engineering. Congratulations, Bappi!
  • Basem received Dr. Donald R Stanley Graduate Scholarship in Environmental (Civil) Engineering. Congratulations, Basem!
  • Calvin was selected to receive the University of Alberta Graduate Fellowship 2019. Congratulations, Calvin!

September 2019

  • Long’s paper has been accepted for publication in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy.  It was collaborative work with Ryerson University. Congratulations, Long!
  • Dr. Dhar and Bappi attended WEFTEC-2019 in Chicago, USA. Bappi presented a paper on anaerobic co-digestion of fate, oil, and grease (FOG).
  • Dhar Lab welcomes 3 Ph.D. (Qi Huang, Seyed Mohammad Mirsoleimani Azizi, and Wafa Dastyar) and 3 M.Sc. students (Peijun Zhou, Mayank Dhadwal, and Hok Nam Joey Ting) this fall. Joey previously worked as a summer student under NSERC USRA program.  Qi recently completed her M.Sc. under co-supervision of Dr. Liu and Dr. Dhar.
  • Qi successfully defended her M.Sc. thesis. Congratulations, Qi!

July 2019

  • Bappi’s manuscript on co-digestion of FOG with conductive additives has been accepted for publication in Chemosphere. Congratulations, Bappi!

June 2019

  • Basem’s review article on electro-methanogenesis has been accepted for publication in Bioresource Technology. Congratulations, Basem!

  • Basem’s paper has been accepted for publication in Science of the Total Environment. Congratulations, Basem!

  • John successfully defended his M.Sc. thesis. Congratulations, John!                                                                                                                          

May 2019

  • Basem S. Zakaria received “Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship”, one of the most prestigious graduate scholarships administered by the University of Alberta. Congratulations on this well-deserved recognition, Basem!
  • Dr. Dhar received “Engineering Early-Career Research Award 2018/2019 in recognition of excellence in research within the Faculty of Engineering.
  • Visiting student Raul Bello Cruz joined the lab under Mitacs Globalink Research Internship program. He is a final year Biotechnology Engineering student at the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios superiors de Monterrey Campus Estado de México. Welcome, Raul!
  • Calvin and Bappi won best presentation awards in the 11th Western Canadian Symposium on Water Quality Research (May 10, 2019). Bappi received the award under the category “Bioenergy and Biofuels”. Calvin received the award under the category “Applied Electrochemistry for Water Industry”. Congratulations, Bappi and Calvin!
  • Raj Shekhar Bose, a Visiting Doctoral Research Fellow from School of Water Resources at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur joined the group. His visit is supported by the Science and Engineering Research Board, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. Welcome, Raj!

April 2019

  • Joey Ting received this year’s “Outstanding Research Performance” award for his research activities under UofA Faculty of Engineering’s Dean’s Research Award Program.  The top student presentation in each department was selected for this award. He will continue his research at our lab under NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRA). Congratulations, Joey!
  • Dr. Dhar has been appointed as a Guest Editor to publish a special issue on “Processes for Bioenergy and Resources Recovery from Biowaste” for Processes, an open-access international peer-reviewed journal. The Call for Contributions to the Special Issue can be found here; the deadline for submissions is December 31, 2019.
  • Dr. Long Lin published a research article in Molecules as a first author.  It was a collaborative work led by Ryerson University. Congratulations, Long!
  • Brandon, Rochelle, and Joey successfully completed their research project under the Faculty of Engineering’s Dean’s Research Award program. Congratulations to all.
  • An invited paper has been accepted for publication in Materials Science for Energy Technologies

March 2019

  • John’s article has been accepted for publication in Biochemical Engineering Journal. Congratulations, John!

February 2019

  • Basem won first prize in the poster competition at the 54th Central Canadian Symposium on Water Quality Research (Feb 27, 2019, Toronto). Congratulations, Basem!
  • Dr. Dhar provided an invited talk at a workshop titled ‘Pursuing Added Value for Alberta Biomass’, organized by Alberta Innovates (Feb 20-21).
  • Hok Nam Joey Ting and Alyssa Pasion joined the group under Faculty of Engineering Undergraduate Dean’s Research Award Program. Welcome, Joey and Alyssa!
  • Dr. Dhar will be charing the 11th Western Canadian Symposium on Water Quality Research to be held in Edmonton, Alberta on May 10, 2019.  This is a conference supported by the Canadian Association of Water Quality (CAWQ). Full conference details can be found here.

January 2019

  • Dr. Mohamed Meshref joins the lab as a Postdoc under MITACS Accelerate Postdoctoral Program. He is co-supervised with our collaborator Dr. Tesfa Haile at InnoTech Alberta. Dr. Mesherf completed his Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Alberta.  Welcome, Mohamed!
  • Sajib successfully defended his M.Sc. thesis. Congratulations, Sajib!