Position availabilities: Summer 2015

My research program at Clemson University is seeking applicants for 2 Ph.D. students. These students will join research efforts focused on the Clean WateR³ project (detailed below), with direct interactions with nursery and greenhouse growers in SC and nationally.  Possible dissertation topics include: floating treatment wetlands for nutrient and pathogen remediation, vegetative buffers: plant selection for pathogen remediation. The student(s) will be expected to collaborate directly on research and extension publications, to complete class work on Campus, and to conduct research at the Clemson Institute for Environmental Toxicology and/or Belle W. Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science, and assist with other research projects.  2-assistantships including a competitive stipend and tuition waiver are available. 

The research is part of a larger US Department of Agriculture – National Institute of Food and Agriculture –Specialty Crop Research Initiative competitive grant entitled 'Clean WateR³ - Reduce, Remediate, Recycle – Enhancing Alternative Water Resources Availability and Use to Increase Profitability in Specialty Crops' led by Dr. Sarah White at Clemson.  The team is comprised of a national team of scientists working to encourage use of alternative water resource.  The Clean WateR³ team will assist the grower decision-making process by providing science-based information on nutrient, pathogen, and pesticide fate in recycled water both before and after treatment, average cost and return-on investment of technologies examined, and model-derived, site specific recommendations for water management.  The trans-disciplinary Clean WateR³ team will develop these systems-based solutions by integrating sociological, economic, modeling, and biological data into a user-friendly decision-support system intended to inform and direct our stakeholders’ water management decision-making process.