2022

December 2022

• Calvin received John and Patricia Schlosser Environment Scholarship from the FGSR. The last time a graduate student won this award from our department was back in 2011. Congratulations, Calvin!
• Seyed and Qi successfully completed their doctoral candidacy exams. Congratulations, Seyed and Qi!
• Our research on mitigating micro/nanoplastics using thermal hydrolysis was featured in the Dec-22 issue of Environmental Science & Engineering (ES&E), a reputable environmental industry magazine in Canada. The full article can be found here.

• Nesma’s manuscript on the mitigation of methane emission from tailings using enzymes and lime has been accepted for publication in Chemosphere. Congratulations, Nesma!

November 2022

• Qi was awarded Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship for the third year in a row. Congratulations, Qi!
• Calvin received Korean Honor Scholarship from the Embassy of the Republic of Korea. This scholarship is awarded to outstanding students of Korean heritage to encourage high achievement of academic performance and the development of leadership qualities for their future professional careers. This year only 3 students received this award across Canada. Congratulations, Calvin!

October 2022

• Dr. Dhar virtually gave an invited talk titled ‘Electro-catalyzing Anaerobic Digestion: Multifaceted characterization of fundamental phenomena toward practical applications’ at the International Bioprocessing Association – 10th International Conference on Industrial Bioprocessing (IFIBiop 2022).
• An invited review article on in-situ biogas desulfurization has been accepted in Bioresource Technology Reports. Congratulations, Seyed et al.!

• Seyed was awarded the Bill Shostak Wildlife Award from the FGSR. The last time a graduate student won this award from our department was back in 2016-17. Congratulations, Seyed!

September 2022

• Nesma received Petro-Canada Graduate Scholarship for the third time. She received this scholarship in 2018 and 2021. Congratulations, Nesma!
• Seyed received another award this month, Gordon R Finch Memorial Graduate Scholarship in Environmental Engineering. Congratulations, Seyed!
• Nesma successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis on applications of lime and enzymes for oil sand tailings management. Congratulations, Dr. Allam!
• Seyed received Dr. Donald R Stanley Graduate Scholarship in Environmental (Civil) Engineering. Congratulations, Seyed!
• Nervana’s paper on understanding the fate of intracellular, extracellular polymeric substances-associated, and cell-free antibiotic resistance genes in anaerobic digestion of thermally hydrolyzed sludge has been accepted in Science of the Total Environment. Congratulations, Nervana and team!

• Calvin received the Westmoreland Coal Company Graduate Scholarship in Environmental Engineering for the second time. Congratulations, Calvin!
• Ph.D. student Romana Shaila joined the lab. Welcome, Romana!
• M.Sc. student Harveen joined the lab. She will be co-supervised by Dr. Gupta and Dr. Khan from the Chemical and Materials Engineering Department. Welcome, Harveen!

August 2022

• Nervana successfully defended her M.Sc. thesis. Congratulations, Nervana!

July 2022

• A supplementary journal cover art for our paper in ACS ES&T Engineering has been published online now.

• Our recent work on high-solids anaerobic digestion, teamwork by Felipe, Wafa, Seyed, and Basem, has been accepted for publication in Chemosphere.

June 2022

• Qi’s paper on a multifaceted screening of applied voltages for electro-assisted anaerobic digestion of blackwater has been accepted in Bioresource Technology. Congratulations, Qi!

• Calvin received KOGAS Canada Scholarship from the Korean Canadian Scientists’ Scholarship Foundation (KCSSF). Congratulations, Calvin!

May 2022

• Dhar Lab welcomes two undergraduate visiting researchers, Juliana Martinez Ducuara from Colombia and Aayush Kumar Choudhary from India. They joined the lab under the Mitacs Globalink Internship program.
• Our paper on predicting antibiotic resistance genes in anaerobic digestion using machine learning algorithms has been accepted for publication in Science of the Total Environment. It was a collaboration between Dr. Dhar’s team (Nervana, Calvin, and Basem), the 4S Analytics and Modeling Team, and Dr. Rasha-Maal Bared from EPCOR. Congratulations, team!

• Zexuan Ju (Amy) and Raeanna Willsey joined the lab under NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRA). Welcome, Amy and Raeanna!
• Dylan Anderson, an undergraduate student from the Engineering Physics program, joined the lab under the I-STEAM Pathways Environmental Education Program for Indigenous Students at the University of Alberta. Welcome, Dylan!

April 2022

• Dhar lab welcomes visiting professor Dr. Linyu Deng from the School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, China.
• Nervana’s review article on the significance of different process parameters on the fate of antibiotic resistance genes during anaerobic digestion has now been accepted in Bioresource Technology. Congratulations, Nervana!

• Nervana’s article on the propagation of antibiotic resistance genes during anaerobic digestion of thermally hydrolyzed sludge and their correlation with extracellular polymeric substances has been accepted in Scientific Reports. Congratulations, Nervana and her collaborators!

• Calvin’s article on improving the electrical sensitivity of a microbial electrochemical biosensor with quorum sensing autoinducers for oil sands-related naphthenic acids detection has been accepted in Biosensors and Bioelectronics. Congratulations, Calvin and others involved in the project!!

• Basem received Philip H. Jones Award at the 57th Central Canadian Symposium on Water Quality Research in Toronto, Canada. Congratulations, Basem!
• Basem’s review article on antibiotics removal from wastewater using microbial electrochemical systems has been accepted for publication in Processes. Congratulations, Basem!

• Basem’s article on stimulating direct interspecies electron transport in electro-assisted anaerobic digestion using intermittent power supply has been accepted for publication in the Chemical Engineering Journal. Congratulations, Basem!

March 2022

• Basem’s article on the functional roles of propionate to acetate ratios on microbial syntrophy and competition in electro-assisted anaerobic digestion has been accepted for publication in Water Research. In this work, we collaborated with Dr. Kim’s team from McMaster University for numerical modeling work. Congratulations, Basem, and others involved in the project!

February 2022

• Seyed’s article on using sludge thermal hydrolysis to counteract polystyrene nano-plastic particles induced stress on anaerobic digestion has been accepted in ACS ES&T Engineering. Congratulations, Seyed and others involved in the project!

• Seyed received the Alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholarship. Congratulations, Seyed!
• Nesma’s paper on enzyme-assisted dewatering of oil sands tailings has been accepted for publication in Chemical Engineering Journal. Congratulations, Nesma!