Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering Doctoral student Kerry Hamilton has recently received a 2014-15 Fulbright-CSIRO Postgraduate Scholarship. Kerry will be conducting a 10-month research project at Australia’s leading science research organization, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). She will be working with the “Water for a Healthy Country” multidisciplinary National Research Flagship in the laboratory of Dr. Simon Toze and Dr. Warish Ahmed to measure concentrations of waterborne pathogens in roof-harvested rainwater tanks and model their association with meteorological factors. She will also compare two different laboratory methods and conduct a risk assessment to inform Australian public health policies. Outside of the lab, she will be pursuing integrated water resources management coursework at the University of Queensland, volunteering through the CSIRO “Scientists in Schools” Program, and expanding the Brisbane chapter of CSIRO Women in Science.
Kerry is originally from Rockville Centre, New York and graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2008 with a BA in Public Health and in 2009 with a MHS in Environmental Health Sciences. She completed her Master’s thesis work on well water quality in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and was a public health fellow for two years at the US Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development. Kerry is currently president of Drexel Graduate Women in Science and Engineering which organizes academic, social, and community outreach events for graduate students. Kerry’s research interests are quantitative microbial risk assessment, dose response modelling, and green infrastructure. She is advised by Dr. Charles N Haas. Professor Haas notes that Kerry is “a true example of a modern environmental engineer that is needed – one who has combined the basic skills of the public health sciences with the problem solving skills of environmental engineering. This will be a wonderful opportunity for her to add an international dimension to her dissertation.”