Emily+Garner

Emily Garner is currently a PhD candidate at Virginia Tech studying Civil Engineering with a specialization in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering, advised by Dr. Amy Pruden and Dr. Marc Edwards. She obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from West Virginia University. Emily's research is focused on the application of environmental microbiology to natural and engineered systems to better understand the impact of anthropogenic activities on water resources and to develop technologies to ensure the safe and sustainable use of water resources. For her graduate work, Emily is studying the presence of emerging microbial contaminants in recycled water systems. Specifically, she is investigating the presence of opportunistic pathogens, such as //Legionella pneumophila// and //Naegleria fowleri// (commonly known as the “brain eating amoeba”), and antibiotic resistant bacteria in recycled water systems and seeking to identify approaches to prevent growth of these organisms during pipeline transport from the treatment plant to consumers.

Emily is also a member of the Flint Water Study team from Virginia Tech that worked with citizens of Flint, Michigan to identify unsafe levels of lead and //Legionella// bacteria in their drinking water.

RESEARCH INTERESTS
 * Microbial contaminant fate and transport via the urban water cycle
 * Wastewater reuse and sustainable water treatment
 * Bacterial regrowth and water quality in distribution systems
 * Microbial ecology and microbial functional diversity in water systems
 * Application of molecular tools and next generation sequencing technologies

ONGOING RESEARCH
 * Impact of wastewater reuse on the human exposome
 * Antibiotic resistance genes in recycled water
 * Opportunistic pathogen regrowth in recycled water distribution systems
 * Metagenomic characterization of the resistome in surface water impacted by historic flooding
 * Fate and transport of antibiotic resistance genes in surface water
 * Legionella DNA markers in Flint, Michigan tap water
 * [|Microbial source tracking] and [|pathogen fate and transport]

HONORS AND AWARDS
 * Abel Wolman Fellowship, American Water Works Association, 2016
 * //Ut Prosim// Scholar Award, Virginia Tech, 2016
 * Virginia Water Resources Research Center Student Competitive Grant Recipient, 2014
 * Graduate Research Fellowship, National Science Foundation, 2013
 * Via Ph.D. Fellowship, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, 2013