US-Germany Cooperative Research: Modeling the Survival and Potential Proliferation of Microbial Agents in Drinking Water Distribution Systems

0340715 Camper该奖项支持Anne Camper和蒙大拿州立大学的一名学生与德国杜伊斯堡大学水技术系的Woldfgang Uhl合作。 这个国际合作项目的目标是加强和扩大对饮用水分配系统中微生物的运输，命运和持久性的理解。 特别是，它将导致对微生物在所有饮用水管道表面发现的生物膜和其他沉积物中的分区和持久性的理解。 目标是了解由于通过治疗、故意的生物恐怖主义行为或分配系统中不太险恶的破坏而存在的分配系统中的指示生物或潜在致病细菌的行为。 这将通过改进和验证蒙大拿州立大学生物膜工程中心和杜伊斯堡大学现有的数学模型来实现。 这项研究将涉及两个机构之间的人员调动，这将大大有利于两名学生参与，使他们对研究的国际视野。 教师和学生之间的文化交流的影响超出了将从合作中获得的科学专业知识。 这里提出的模型是重要的，能够确定我们的供水系统的脆弱性故意或自然污染事件，以及确定这些事件对水安全的长期影响。

0340715CamperThis award supports Anne Camper and a student from the Montana State University in a collaboration with Woldfgang Uhl of the Department of Water Technology at the University of Duisburg, Germany. The goal of this collaborative international project is to enhance and expand understanding of the transport, fate, and persistence of microbes in drinking water distribution systems. In particular, it will lead to an understanding of the partitioning and persistence of microbes into biofilms and other deposits found on the surfaces of all drinking water pipes. The goal is to understand the behavior of indicator organisms or potentially pathogenic bacteria in distribution systems that are present due to passage through treatment, deliberate acts of bioterrorism, or from less sinister breaches in the distribution system. This will be accomplished by refining and validating existing mathematical models present both at the Center for Biofilm Engineering at Montana State University and within the University of Duisburg. The research will involve a transfer of personnel between the two institutions, which will substantially benefit the two students involved, giving them international perspectives on the research. The cultural exchange between faculty and students has impacts that reach beyond the scientific expertise that will be gained from the collaboration. The models proposed here are important in being able to determine the vulnerability of our water supplies to deliberate or natural contamination events, as well as to determine the long-term impact of these events on water safety.