Treatment Team

Ana Deletic is a Professor of Civil (Water) Engineering, Associate Dean of Research (Engineering) and a Director of Monash Water for Liveability at Clayton campus, Monash University.

Ana became involved in urban water research in the 90s, studying stormwater management in Yugoslavia and Sweden. She completed her PhD at The University of Aberdeen in Scotland, where she lectured between 1995 and 2003. Since then she's worked at Monash University, forming a world renowned research group in stormwater management, conducting research on technologies that employ sustainable, innovative ways for treating urban runoff for stream protection and human consumption. Biofiltration developed under her leadership was implemented across Australia and exported to Singapore and Israel. Ana led development of MUSIC V4, the industry-recognised tool for design of WSUD systems. She co-leads Australian involvement in the EU FP7 project PREPARED, that aims to adapt urban water systems to climate change. As co-director of the Centre for Water Sensitive Cities now renamed Monash Water for Liveability, she helped attain the Commonwealth and industry funding to establish CRC for Water Sensitive Cities (approx. $57 million), managing the CRC Melbourne Node with over 20 industry partners and 70 researchers from Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. Ana has published over 240 journal articles, conference papers and book chapters and supervised around 27 PhD students.

In 2011 she became a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) and is now Deputy Chair of the ATSEs Water Forum Committee. She regularly consults with government at local, state and federal levels; e.g. National Recycled Water Regulators Forum, chairing the Technical Review Committee of Best Practice Environmental Management Guidelines (BPEM) and, until recently, serving on the Urban Water Stakeholder Reference Panel of SEWPC (an Australian Government Dept). She is Fellow of Engineers Australia, and won the 2008 Deans Award for Research. She has served as Associate Editor of Water Research and Water Science and Technology, two of the top international journals in her field; also on the Joint Committee on Urban Drainage (IWA/IAHR) and as expert adviser to the Pennine Water Group in the UK. A highly sought-after keynote speaker, Ana has chaired, led delegations to, or presented keynotes in, numerous international conferences and appeared in media documentaries or interviews.

In 2012, Parliament awarded Ana the Victoria Prize for Science and Innovation for Physical Sciences, which is given to only one researcher in Victoria each year. She is the first woman to receive this award in its 15-year history.

Modelling, monitoring and treatment of urban stormwater

Eric Huang is a new Ph.D student in the lab. He recently received his masters degree in Environmental Engineering from Zhejiang University, China. His previous research focused on using compost to suppress Fusarium oxysprum, a soil-borne fungal pathogen that causes wilting of many plants. His growing passion in environmental microbiology fueled his desire to continue his Ph.D. study in Environmental Engineering.

Jane-Louise is a PhD candidate at Smart Water Research Centre, Griffith University, investigating human health risks associated with pathogens in stormwater harvested for reuse. She first became interested in human health risks associated with water while undertaking her Bachelor of Business (Management)/Bachelor of Science (Public Health) at the University of the Sunshine Coast. During her honours research she conducted a screening level risk assessment of human health hazards associated with constructed lakes in a peri-urban catchment on the Sunshine Coast. Prior to commencing her PhD, Jane-Louise also worked as a research assistant at Smart Water Research Centre, examining risks associated with recycled wastewater.

Jane-Louise’s PhD (Health Risk Assessment of Pathogens in Stormwater Harvested for Reuse) is linked to Project P5 (Risks and Health), within the Cities as Water Supply Catchments Program.

Fate and transport modeling; pathogen removal in biofilters

Dr. Jiang’s research group focuses on applied and environmental microbiology. Research projects in her lab include investigation of seawater desalination biofouling, deep subsurface sludge disposal and energy regeneration, microbial water quality and microbial ecology of harmful algal blooms. Please see Jiang’s laboratory webpage for additional information.

His major research interests are sunlight-mediated photochemical reactions in natural waters and free radical chemistry of aqueous solutions. Most recently, he has been involved in the application of ozonation for ballast water treatment at full-scale on oil tankers.

As a civilian, he ran the water reuse program for the U.S. Army at Ft. Detrick and also helped pioneer the first annual Water Reuse Symposium in 1979. Additionally, he served as director of the Drinking Water Research Center at Florida International University and as a consultant to the International Atomic Energy Agency and several international cooperative research projects.

Cooper received his doctorate in marine and atmospheric chemistry from the University of Miami in 1987

Wolfgang is the program leader of the Water Recycling Research Program at the AWMC since 2009, after moving to work at here in 2008. He has successfully delivered in collaboration with his fellow colleagues on numerous research and consulting projects in the area of water recycling, stormwater and drinking water.

Before his arrival in Australia, Wolfgang worked for 6 years on his PhD, and then as a research fellow in the ’Environmental Applications of Solar Energy’ group at the Spanish CIEMAT-Plataforma Solar de Almería.

His core skills lie in the area of chemical oxidative processes, membrane processes and other filtration processes, in particular with regards to contaminant removal and process optimization. Wolfgang has published over 50 peer-reviewed publications and has an H-index of 20.

Yiping Cao (phonetic spelling "Tsao") is a senior microbiologist who specializes in molecular techniques and microbial ecological tools. She received her B.S. degree in Environmental Chemistry, in 1998, from Nanjing University, P.R. China, her M.A. degree in Applied Statistics, in 2004, and her Ph.D. degree in Environmental Science and Management, in 2006, both from University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Cao joined SCCWRP in February 2007. Her present research efforts focus on microbial source tracking and the development and implementation of rapid indicator methods for microbial contamination in coastal waters.