Andrea Silverman

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

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

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