Briefly describe overall research program at your laboratory:
The focus of my research is on microbial kinetic analysis and bioreactor design for bioconversion processes used for environmental applications (reduction of nutrient and substrate concentrations) and bioprocessing (production of specialty chemicals such as nutraceutical and pharmaceutical compounds and biofuels using agricultural residues and biomass).

Blooms of algae in freshwater environments are stimulated by nutrient inputs from a variety of pollution sources.  Lake Greenwood is a popular recreational waterbody that has been impacted by dense algal blooms.  These blooms occur with increasing severity despite decreasing concentrations of nutrients in the water column, indicating that sediment nutrient content may be triggering the blooms. After conducting a literature review of water quality data and predominant naturally-occurring algal species in the lake, four phases of research are planned. These phases are:
1) conducting a field assessment of naturally-occurring algae in the lake considering spatial and seasonal affects, as correlated to sediment nutrient content, if not present in the literature;
2) a laboratory kinetic analysis of the algal growth rate as a function of sediment phosphorus content;
3) a lab-scale investigation of a biological reactor designed to reduce soluble phosphorus content in the lake; and
4) an investigation of high-value products, such as sulfolipids, that may be present in the naturally-occurring algae, that could be extracted for biotechnology applications.

Josefin, Kelly and Michael will focus on Phases 1, 2 and 3 of the research, with a future student conducting the Phase 4 of the research.  Josefin, Kelly and Michael are all seniors in Biosystems Engineering at CU , in the Natural Resources concentration area.