E. (Émile ) Sylvestre

E. (Émile ) Sylvestre

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As a civil engineer specializing in water treatment and microbiology, my primary research interest centers on using quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) to predict public health risks from exposure to pathogens in engineered water systems. I am drawn to this topic because of the intricate nature of assessing risks, which demands both specialized knowledge in microbiology and engineering, along with a foundational understanding of statistics and risk assessment procedures. The combination of complexity and practicality makes the field particularly fascinating and valuable.

For my Ph.D. at Polytechnique Montréal, Canada, under Professors Michèle Prévost and Sarah Dorner, I developed monitoring and statistical methods to evaluate health risks associated with microbial peaks in drinking water sources during weather events. After my Ph.D., I did a postdoctoral fellowship in Dr. Tim Julian’s group at Eawag, Switzerland. This post-Ph.D. phase broadened my research to building water safety management, including cooling towers and onsite greywater (re-)use systems. In January 2024, I started as an Assistant Professor in "Water Technologies & Health" at TU Delft. 

My research aims to identify, characterize and manage hazardous events in engineered water systems. Such events can occur at any stage of a water system, from the source to the point of use. They can be triggered by various factors, including treatment process failures or peaks in source water pathogen concentrations. Given the variable nature of pathogen concentrations, capable of causing human health effects from acute exposure, mitigating these events is a critical task. This topic takes importance as climate change amplifies extreme weather, and the rise of water scarcity demands more reuse, introducing new human exposure pathways.

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