LaPara(personal), Civil Engineering

Welcome to the Official WebPage of the LaPara Research Group

Research in Environmental Engineering and Microbial Ecology

19 May 2008: Lab Fishing Day 2008 (ver. 1)!

To celebrate the end of the semester, I decided to host the first lab fishing day of the summer. The scheduling was a little bit difficult, such that Katheryn Hope and Alina Grigorescu could not join us, unfortunately. I showed up around 6 am at Turtle Lake, after which Ashley Whitt arrived around 8am. Soon after, Ali Ling showed up and the three of us fished for a couple of hours before Dave Diehl and Chris Harrington arrived (note: Dave and Chris did not actually attempt to fish; I merely forced them to be photographed holding a fish). Eventually, Kara Holzmiller also arrived, but after we had finished fishing, to join us for lunch. It was a cloudy and somewhat cool day, definitely more enjoyable the another day at work (I even caught a fish or two)!

14 March 2008: Paper accepted for publication in Journal of Membrane Science

I was notified today that a paper authored by Ali Ahmadi has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Membrane Science. The title of the manuscript is "Ammonium removal in advective-flow membrane-aerated biofilm reactors (AF-MABRs)"

22 February 2008: Apparently, they think that I am a young engineer?

It's not in my nature to brag, but I decided to start this webpage as a means of self-promotion. So, I suppose it's appropriate to announce that I was awarded the "Young Engineer of the Year" by the Minnesota section of the American Society of Civil Engineers as well as the "Minnesota Young Engineer of the Year" by the Minnesota Federation of Engineering, Science and Technology Societies. I would especially like to thank Pat Brezonik and Cathy French for nominating me and John Novak for writing a letter of support that went along with my application.

20 December 2007: Paper accepted for publication in Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology

We were formally notified that the final paper from David Chen's doctoral thesis was accepted for publication in the Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology. The manuscript is entitled "Biological Treatment of a Synthetic Space Mission Wastewater Using a Membrane-Aerated, Membrane-Coupled Bioreactor (M2BR)".

14 December 2007: Sudeshna Ghosh moves on to JPL

Today was Sudeshna's last day working in the LaPara lab. In some ways this is a sad day because Sudeshna was my very first graduate student; mostly, however, it is a day of great celebration as Sudeshna is moving on to bigger and better things working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Good luck Sudeshna!!!

7 December 2007: Party at Tim's House!

It had been a couple of years since I have had my research group over to my house. It seems that my biological productivity has inhibited my social life (i.e., I've been having too many kids lately to host guests). Anyhow, Kelly and I made homemade pizza and served a couple varieties of beer and wine. Please note that the Savignon Blanc from the Huia winery in New Zealand is highly recommended.

Pictures:

15 October 2007: Paper accepted for publication in Process Biochemistry

The second paper from David Chen's doctoral dissertation was accepted for publication in Process Biochemistry. The manuscript is entitled "Enrichment of Dense Nitrifying Bacterial Communities in Membrane-Coupled Bioreactors."

5 October 2007: Ali Ling and Alina Grigorescu present their Research

Today, our lab attend the annual meeting of the North-Central Branch of the American Society for Microbiology. The meeting was held in exciting Marshfield, Wisconsin at the Marshfield Clinic. Sadly, the majority of the meeting was devoted to medical microbiology, but we managed to show some interesting data and have a good.

4 September 2007: I am named Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department of Civil Engineering

In what might be the end of my research career, I was named Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Minnesota. Actually, I had to promise my department head that I would not compromise my research my accepting this position.

22 August 2007: Sudeshna Ghosh becomes Dr. Sudeshna Ghosh!

After years of hard work (even torture?) under my tutelage, Sudeshna Ghosh successfully defended her doctoral dissertation today. Like virtually everyone who completes this noteworthy task, she immediately began new investigations into other microbially-related processes.

16 August 2007: Back to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness

In a follow-up study to our previous trip to the BWCAW, we revisited perhaps the most beautiful area in Minnesota to collect lake water samples. We arrived on the 15th, spending a pleasant evening in Grand Marais. We awoke very early on the 16th, sampled 11 different lakes by 1pm and then headed back to the Twin Cities. Hopefully, all of this hard work will yield a seminal publication. If not, at least the photographs are nice.

4 August 2007: A week at Itasca State Park

Many of us from the LaPara lab spent last week at Itasca State Park, investigating the lakes there as part of our NSF-funded project on Ecological Stoichiometry and Biodiversity. Itasca was beautiful as always, although the number of loons seemed greater than ever before. There is little to share from the trip, except for the pictures -- which are exceptional!

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Last Updated: 14 March 2008

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