Post-Doctoral Scholar
Billy Fagan, PhD
Graduate Students
C.R. Weaver, PhD
Lena Ruban, PhD
Josh Fuchs, MS
Josh Fuchs is an upcoming 2nd year Master’s student in Dr. Weavers group who plans to pursue a PhD in the future while aspiring to teach and continue research in academia. He has a lot of love for Ohio State after spending his undergrad here earning his Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Engineering in 2018. After completing his Bachelor’s degree, Josh participated in consulting for 2 years working on a variety of water and wastewater distribution projects throughout Ohio. Josh has a passion for water treatment and is looking forward to continuing work and research in the water field. He hopes to use applied engineering in his future career for engineering work in developing countries and has gained prior experience doing so through an Ohio State engineering trip oversees that he took part in during his undergraduate as well as coursework he performed while earning a Minor in Humanitarian Engineering at Ohio State. In his free time Josh likes to go on a daily walk, ride his bike, set up his hammock at a park, and go on snowboarding trips with friends and family. He is an avid traveler and hopes to continue traveling to new places regularly.
Josh’s current research project involves developing a design standard with Ohio EPA and Ohio AWWA for ozone and/or biofiltration installations for Ohio PWSs for treating organic contaminants. The goal of the project is to improve finished water quality in Ohio by making it easier for future water systems to install ozone and/or biofiltration by lowering the demonstration requirements for obtaining Ohio EPA Plan Approval for ozone design and installation. Ozone and biofiltration are often used simultaneously and can be used to target highly health-relevant contaminants in Ohio such as disinfection byproducts (DBPs) including trihalomethanes (TTHMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs) and also for cyanotoxins including microcystin. These treatment processes can also be used for other targets such as taste and odor compounds, pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PCCPs), pesticides, color, and the multibarrier disinfection achievable with ozone. The design standard is expected to increase the familiarity of ozone and biofiltration for PWSs and is expected to be especially useful for small-to-medium PWSs in Ohio who currently have a larger barrier to installing ozone due to the cost and time associated with the current demonstration requirements for Plan Approval.
Shannon Thayer, MS
Shannon Thayer is Master’s student who has worked under Dr. Weavers since the summer of 2019. She completed her bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering at Ohio State in December 2020. Shannon worked as an undergraduate research assistant with Billy Fagan. Their work involved investigating the effects of ultrasound on PFASs compounds. She worked closely with Billy to develop experiments and analytical methods.
Inspired by this work, Shannon decided to pursue her master’s in environmental science under Dr. Weavers. Her master’s work is focused on the use of ultrasonic treatment of harmful algal blooms.
Mark Tischer, MS
Haley Kuhn, MS/PhD
Haleigh Fernandez, MS
Elyse Bonner, PhD
Marc Nolan, PhD
Undergraduate Students
Sam Gill, Environmental Engineering
Jack Deptola, Chemical Engineering
Lauren Nemec, Environmental Engineering