Former Students and Scholars

Elizabeth Bankston

Elizabeth joined the lab as a Master's student in August of 2017 and studied algae growth on digestates of poultry litter. The algae remove nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus which cause toxic algae blooms and fish kills in natural waters. The algae we grow are not toxic and are rich in protein, starch, and oil. She received her MS in August of 2019. 

Haixin Peng

Haixin joined the lab in January of 2017. She has an MS in Food Engineering and investigated the biofuel and food-production capability of processes that utilize algae in collaboration with the bacteria Azospirillum brasilense. Azospirillum is a plant-growth-promoting bacteria but it also is known to increase algal growth rates and alter its biochemical composition. She received her PhD in August of 2020.

  Rohit Kalvakaalva

Rohit joined the lab in January of 2019 and carried out a project to construct a process model and life cycle assessment of the   AU aquaponics system. Rohit supported these efforts by conducting analytical work in the lab . He received his MS in December of 2020.

Peyton Goodling

Peyton joined the lab in the Fall of 2019 as an undergraduate researcher and then completed her Master's degree in August of 2021. She developed a model to predict the odor-causing molecules, 2-MIB and geosmin, in regional drinking water reservoirs. These are the two most common molecules that cause "muddy water" odor particularly in the warmer months of the year. Her work focused on Lake Ogeltree in Auburn, Lake Saugahatchee in Opelika, and Lake Oliver in Columbus, GA.

Morgan Thomas

Morgan joined the lab in Spring of 2020 and undertook a sequencing project to understand the source of odor-causing molecules (2-MIB and geosmin) in Lake Saugahatchee, Opelika. This reservoir is notorious for the odor-causing molecule 2-MIB with levels that often far exceed human detection. Morgan used quantitative PCR and targeted loci sequencing of the MIB and geosmin synthase genes to pinpoint which microorganisms were causing off-flavor in this reservoir.

Dillon Sprague

Dillon joined the lab in Fall of 2020 and undertook a project focused on treatment and utilization of poultry processing wastewater. He experimented with extended runtime of an algal-bacterial treatment system that provided important data for a pilot-scale research system that is under development.

Elizabeth Childree

Elizabeth joined the lab in the summer of 2020 as an undergraduate researcher and is now doing her masters degree. She is creating a process model and life cycle assessment for a system that upcycles nutrients from anaerobic digestate into fish feed.

Nathan Wall

Nathan joined the lab in November of 2018 and developed a process flow diagram of the AU aquaponics system in SuperPro Designer software. He populated the model with data data obtained from the on-campus system and from the scientific literature.

Bryan Holmes

Bryan joined the in January of 2018 and investigated exchange of oxygen between algae and bacteria for wastewater treatment applications. Bryan received an undergraduate research fellowship to carry out this work.

Matt Preisser

Matt worked in the lab from January 2017 to May 2018. He investigated anaerobic digestion of poultry litter and AU campus food waste. He won an undergraduate research fellowship and is currently a graduate student at University of Texas, Austin.

Kaiyan Li

Kaiyan worked in the lab as an undergraduate researcher from 9/2016-8/2017. He helped launch the lab, including constructing much of our photobioreactor system. He also did experiments to investigate interactions between the green algae  Auxenochlorella protothecoides and a species of  Bacillus. In addition, he helped launch a project investigating digestate inhibition of algae growth. Kaiyan is headed to UC Davis where he will do his Masters degree in Biological Systems Engineering.

Justin Box

Justin joined the lab in April of 2018 and is studying the impacts of cover treatments for the prevention of algae and cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) growth in water treatment plants. In 2019, he received an undergraduate research fellowship to study the use of algal-bacterial consortia for the treatment of poultry processing wastewater.

Kristin Chaump

Kristin joined the lab in June of 2017 and is investigating digestion of poultry litter that has been fractionated into its soluble and insoluble fractions. She also investigated biological approaches to solubilize phosphate in poultry litter for later extraction and precipitation. Excess phosphorus in poultry litter has led to build-up of this mineral in soils around the southeastern US when the litter is land-applied. Recovery of phosphorus from litter could allow for continued land-application while allowing for long-distance transport of phosphate-minerals for fertilizer application.

Rasheed Jeheeb

Rasheed was an REU student in our lab for the summer of 2023. He conducted experiments focused on feeding conditions for growing zooplankton with wastewater-grown algae. Zooplankton are a natural fish feed.