Andrea Silverman

Andrea Silverman
Andrea Silverman
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Assistant Professor of Environmental Public Health Sciences

Professional overview

The goal of Dr. Andrea Silverman’s work is to develop sustainable and appropriate wastewater treatment systems, in an effort to protect public health and the environment. Within the topics of water quality and wastewater treatment, she focuses on the detection and control of waterborne pathogens, the design of disinfection processes in natural wastewater treatment systems (e.g. treatment ponds and constructed wetlands), and the safe reuse of human waste.

Dr. Silverman has conducted research in Accra, Ghana on the use of untreated wastewater for vegetable irrigation. In Nairobi, Kenya, she worked with Sanergy, a social enterprise that composts human waste for reuse in agriculture, to ensure effective quality control and safety of the end product. Her ongoing research includes the study of how sunlight kills microorganisms in water (i.e., sunlight disinfection) and the use of this information to create numerical models that predict disinfection rates, which can then be used for the design of natural wastewater treatment systems.

As a professor, Dr. Silverman teaches courses at the Tandon School of Engineering and the School of Global Public Health that address environmental contaminants and appropriate interventions reduce their public health impact, including removal and transformation processes in natural and engineered systems. Courses taught include Introduction to Environmental Engineering, Environmental Health in a Global World, and the Detection and Control of Waterborne Pathogens.

Education

BS, Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
MS, Environmental Engineering, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
PhD, Environmental Engineering, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

Honors and awards

Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, UC Berkeley (2011)
Chang-Lin Tien Fellowship, UC Berkeley (2011)
Science and Engineering for Global Health Fellowship, The Center for Emerging and Neglected Diseases, UC Berkeley (2009)
Chancellor’s Fellowship, UC Berkeley (2007)

Areas of research and study

Environmental Impact
Environmental Public Health Services
Sanitation systems
Sustainability
Waterborne pathogens

Publications

Publications

Sunlight inactivation of human viruses and bacteriophages in coastal waters containing natural photosensitizers

Silverman, A. I., Peterson, B. M., Boehm, A. B., McNeill, K., & Nelson, K. L. (n.d.).

Publication year

2013

Journal title

Environmental Science and Technology

Volume

47

Issue

4

Page(s)

1870-1878
Abstract
Abstract
Sunlight inactivation of poliovirus type 3 (PV3), adenovirus type 2 (HAdV2), and two bacteriophage (MS2 and PRD1) was investigated in an array of coastal waters to better understand solar inactivation mechanisms and the effect of natural water constituents on observed inactivation rates (kobs). Reactor scale inactivation experiments were conducted using a solar simulator, and kobs for each virus was measured in a sensitizer-free control and five unfiltered surface water samples collected from different sources. k obs values varied between viruses in the same water matrix, and for each virus in different matrices, with PV3 having the fastest and MS2 the slowest kobs in all waters. When exposed to full-spectrum sunlight, the presence of photosensitizers increased kobs of HAdV2, PRD1 and MS2, but not PV3, which provides evidence that the exogenous sunlight inactivation mechanism, involving damage by exogenously produced reactive intermediates, played a greater role for these viruses. While PV3 inactivation was observed to be dominated by endogenous mechanisms, this may be due to a masking of exogenous kobs by significantly faster endogenous k obs. Results illustrate that differences in water composition can shift absolute and relative inactivation rates of viruses, which has important implications for natural wastewater treatment systems, solar disinfection (SODIS), and the use of indicator organisms for monitoring water quality.

Comparison of enterovirus and adenovirus concentration and enumeration methods in seawater from Southern California, USA and Baja Malibu, Mexico

Sassoubre, L. M., Love, D. C., Silverman, A. I., Nelson, K. L., & Boehm, A. B. (n.d.).

Publication year

2012

Journal title

Journal of Water and Health

Volume

10

Issue

3

Page(s)

419-430
Abstract
Abstract
Despite being important etiological agents of waterborne illness, the sources, transport and decay of human viruses in recreational waters are not well understood. This study examines enterovirus and adenovirus concentrations in coastal water samples collected from four beaches impacted by microbial pollution: (1) Malibu Lagoon, Malibu; (2) Tijuana River, Imperial Beach; (3) Baja Malibu, Baja California; and (4) Punta Bandera, Baja California. Water samples were concentrated using a flocculation-based skim milk method and dead-end membrane filtration (MF). Viruses were enumerated using cell culture infectivity assays and reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-QPCR). Across concentration and quantification methods, enteroviruses were detected more often than adenoviruses. For both viruses, MF followed by (RT)QPCR yielded higher concentrations than skim milk flocculation followed by (RT)QPCR or cell culture assays. Samples concentrated by skim milk flocculation and enumerated by (RT)QPCR agreed more closely with concentrations enumerated by cell culture assays than MF followed by (RT)QPCR. The detection of viruses by MF and (RT)QPCR was positively correlated with the presence of infectious viruses. Further research is needed to determine if detection of viruses by rapid methods such as (RT)QPCR can be a useful water quality monitoring tool to assess health risks in recreational waters.

Human virus and bacteriophage inactivation in clear water by simulated sunlight compared to bacteriophage inactivation at a Southern California beach

Love, D. C., Silverman, A., & Nelson, K. L. (n.d.).

Publication year

2010

Journal title

Environmental Science and Technology

Volume

44

Issue

18

Page(s)

6965-6970
Abstract
Abstract
Few quantitative data exist on human virus inactivation by sunlight and the relationship between human and indicator viruses under sunlit conditions. We investigated the effects of sunlight on human viruses (adenovirus type 2, poliovirus type 3) and bacteriophages (MS2, Q-Beta SP, Fi, M13, PRD1, Phi-X174, and coliphages isolated from Avalon Bay, California). Viruses were inoculated into phosphate buffered saline or seawater, exposed to a laboratory solar simulator for ≤12 h, and enumerated by double agar layer or cell culture to derive first-order inactivation rate constants (kobs, h -1). The viruses most resistant to sunlight were adenovirus type 2 (kobs= 0.59 ± 0.04 h-1) and bacteriophage MS2 (kobs= 0.43 ± 0.02 h-1), which suggests MS2 may be a conservative indicator for sunlight resistant human viruses in clear water when sunlight inactivation is the main removal mechanism. Reasonable agreement was observed between somatic coliphage inactivation rates measured in the solar simulator (kmean = 1.81 h-1) and somatic coliphages measured in the surf zone during a field campaign at Avalon Bay during similar sunlight intensity (k = 0.75 h-1 at log-RMSE minimum; k range = 0.54 h-1 to >1.88 h-1; Boehm, A. B. et al. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2009, 43, (21), 8046-8052). Hence, measuring sunlight inactivation rates of viruses in the laboratory can be used to estimate inactivation in the environment under similar sunlight and water quality conditions.

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