Research

Director of Water Technology and Research, Hampton Roads Sanitation District
Adjunct Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, VT

Research interests: Municipal and industrial wastewater treatment; advanced water treatment and potable reuse, physical-chemical and biological treatment processes.

Research activities:

1. Advanced water treatment processes for potable reuse
2. Biological nutrient removal processes
3. Aerobic granular sludge processes
4. Advanced process control systems – sensors and automation
5. Thermal hydrolysis, co-digestion, and other digestion enhancements
6. Chemical and biological phosphorus removal, including emerging sidestream mixed liquor fermentation biological phosphorus removal processes
7. Sidestream and mainstream deammonification/shortcut nitrogen removal (anammox)
8. Nutrient recovery    
9. Environmental microbiology and biotechnology
10. Biological and physical-chemical removal of emerging contaminants
11. Water quality
12. Biogas conditioning and energy recovery

Lab: Durham 481

Research interests: Human exposure at the air-water interface; drinking water quality and treatment; environmental analytical chemistry.

Research activities:

1. Fate, transport, and human exposure to organic and inorganic chemicals in air, water, biota 
2. Chemosensory analysis of environmental contaminants and tastes-and-odors in drinking water
3. Assessing the role of aqueous metals in human nutrition and toxicity
4. Consumer satisfaction with drinking water quality

Labs:  Durham 483, Patton 7, Hancock 206, ICTAS II

Research interests: Water treatment; corrosion; arsenic removal; applied aquatic chemistry.

Research activities:

1. Corrosion and water quality in potable water distribution systems
2. Microbial growth in premise plumbing and distribution systems
3. Metals leaching to water supplies from plumbing (especially copper/lead)
4. Public health impacts of metal leaching
5. Energy-water-public health nexus in building hot water systems
6. Engineering and science ethics

Lab: Norris 202

Group Website:  http://www.airflows.beam.vt.edu

Research interests: Environmental and Geophysical Fluid Mechanics, Atmospheric Science and Climate Dynamics, Air Quality and Human Health, Turbulence and Turbulent Flows

Research activities:

1. Numerical simulation of environmental and geophysical flow systems
2. Multi-scale multi-pollutant air quality modelling
3. Long-range transport of particles in the atmosphere
4. Momentum/heat/mass exchange at the air-sea interface
5. Physical processes governing emissions of air pollutants

Lab: Durham 395

Research interests: Environmental statistics and data analysis; risk assessment; food safety; contaminant fate and transportation; environmental modelling and simulation.

Research activities:

1. Exposure analysis from the crude MCHM spill in drinking water
2. Risk assessment for Shiga toxin producing E. coli in beef
3. Use of customer complaints as early warning systems for contamination
4. Developing a Markov Chain model to describe retail deli worker behaviour
5. Analysis of face reader technology to describe emotional impacts of food
6. Canonical correlation analysis of drinking water quality with home-owner perceptions.

Lab:  Occoquan Watershed Monitoring Laboratory, 9048 Prince William Street, Manassas, VA (Northern VA area), Co-Director

Group website : owml.cee.vt.edu

Research interests: Water supply and water quality; environmental fate and transport modeling; coupled human-natural systems

Research activities:

1. Nutrient and pathogen removal in streams and coastal waters
2. Capture, treatment, and fit-for-purpose use of stormwater
3. Collaborative investigations of water conservation behavior

A National Science Foundation Growing Convergence Research (GCR) Project; Catalyzing Stakeholder-Driven Solutions to Inland Freshwater Salinization

Labs:  Patton 3, Patton 4, Patton 10, various field sites

Group website – www.flow.cee.vt.edu

Research interests: Hydrology; hydraulics; environmental fluid mechanics; groundwater; surface water-groundwater exchange; hyporheic exchange; floodplain exchange; surface coal mine hydrology.

Research activities:

1. Analysis of flow in streams, rivers
2. wetlands, riparian zones, and groundwater
3. Zonal exchange such as hyporheic exchange and floodplain exchange
4. Nutrient, pollutant, and heat transport in water
5. Mitigation of pollution by natural means in stream and river systems
6. Water quality impacts of surface coal mining
7. Measuring environmental sustainability of water resources management

Research interests: Coastal engineering; coastal hazards; storm surge; tropical cyclones; disaster resilience; natural and nature-based infrastructure; sea-level rise.

Research activities:

1. Probabilistic surge hazard assessment
2. Storm surge dynamics
3. Effects of sea-level rise on ecosystems
4. Disaster-resilient communities and infrastructure
5. Coastal hazard assessment
6. Impact of forests and mangroves on tsunami inundation
7. Storm-induced coastal erosion and barrier-island breaching
8. Storm surge forecasting

Labs:  Durham 491 and 493

Research interests: Natural and anthropogenic emissions transformation in the atmosphere; air pollution formation and removal.

Research activities:

1. Particulate matter in both indoor and outdoor environments
2. Interactions between gas- and particle phase compounds in the atmosphere
3. Composition of anthropogenic and natural emissions
4. Chemistry behind emission oxidation in atmosphere to form particulate matter
5. Processes that deposit emissions into other ecosystems

Dr. Knocke has transitioned to a half-time faculty position in the EWR Program effective August 2024.  While he continues to have teaching responsibilities within the EWR program he is no longer actively involved in research work or advising graduate students who wish to conduct research.

Labs:  Durham 493 and 495 as well as three field sites (Spring Hollow Reservoir, Carvins Cove Reservoir and Falling Creek Reservoir)

Research interests: Cross-media mass transfer and process dynamics in environmental systems, with a focus on managing water quality in lakes, reservoirs, and watersheds, and understanding and controlling emissions from building materials and consumer products.  A system-of-systems approach to a wide range of socio-environmental problems is a relatively new area of interest.

Research activities:

1. Management of water quality in lakes and reservoirs
2. Migration of chemicals from materials and products into air and water
3. Sustainable management of watersheds and the integration of watershed and economic models
4. Approaching sustainability and resilience from a systems perspective

Labs: Durham 493 and 495, Kelly 230

Group Website:  http://www.air.cee.vt.edu

Research interests: Transformation and fate of pollutants in the atmosphere; improved quantification of air pollutant emissions; environmental and health impacts of nanotechnology; airborne transmission of infectious disease.

Research activities:

1. Quantifying emissions of gaseous and particulate pollutants from different sources
2. Developing a mechanistic understanding of the airborne transmission of infectious diseases
3. Characterizing the airborne microbiome
4. Assessing the environmental impacts and health impacts of engineered nanoparticles
5. Predicting partitioning of organic compounds and exposure to them

Lab:  220C Patton Hall

Group Website:  http://marstonresearchgroup.com/

Research interests: Dr. Marston's research aims to provide new understanding and solutions towards sustainable water resources management. He is particularly interested in investigating the complex ways in which society depends on and manages water through infrastructure, trade, and policy. Dr. Marston's research is driven by questions such as, How does climate and socio-economic change impact water resources? How and where is water used within the economy? What are the environmental consequences associated with our patterns of economic production and consumption? To answer these questions, his research group draws on approaches and concepts from engineering, hydrology, computer science, and economics.

Lab:  ICTAS II

Group Website:  https://www.pruden.cee.vt.edu/research/

Research interests: Applied environmental microbiology; antibiotic resistance genes as emerging contaminants; opportunistic pathogens in premise plumbing; environmental implications of nanotechnology; biomolecular tools; sustainable water infrastructure; microbiome of the built environment.

Research activities:

1. Antibiotic resistance in agricultural and wastewater influenced watersheds
2. Opportunistic pathogens in drinking water systems
3. Characterizing the microbiome of the built environment.
4. Provide fundamental insight into wastewater, drinking water and recycled water systems

Lab:  Occoquan Watershed Monitoring Laboratory, 9048 Prince William Street, Manassas, VA (Northern VA area), owml.vt.edu

Personal Homepage: https://www.ecosystem-services-lab.com

Research interests:  Urban water quality and public/ecosystem health (coastal, estuarine, and stormwater); Green stormwater infrastructure; Ecosystem services and public perception of urban greenspace

Research activities:

1. Effects of urban stormwater on aquatic ecosystems and public health
2. Characterization and modeling of green infrastructure co-benefits and their social, ecological, and hydrological drivers
3. Urban water security (particularly during times of drought).

Lab: 111 Hancock Hall [Baker Environmental Hydraulics Laboratory]

Research interests: Environmental hydraulics; environmental fluid mechanics; sediment transport; geomorphology; experimental methods.

Research activities:

1. Sediment transport processes in coastal river mouth plumes
2. Turbulence and bed sediment motion
3. Hydraulics of distributive channels and their deposits (deltas and fans)
4. Movement of fine sediment in gravel bed rivers and estuaries
5. Experimental methods and instrumentation development

Lab: Hancock 206, Kelly 230

Research interests: Nanomaterials in the environment; improved sensors for drinking water treatment.

Research activities:

1. Field-deployable sensors for detection of environmental contaminants
2. Characterization of the environmental implications of nanomaterials
3. Use of nanoparticle-enabled spectroscopies
4. Engineered nanomaterials interaction with biotic and abiotic surfaces

Lab: Durham 389B; Patton 10 and 14

Research interests: Groundwater resources; fate and attenuation of contaminants in aquatic environments; modelling and decision-support tools; subsurface remediation including natural attenuation; bioremediation; phytoremediation.

Research activities:

1. Forecasting cost-benefit of municipal water system upgrades
2. Regional water supply planning
3. Groundwater management and modeling in Eastern Virginia
4. Risk assessment to water supply and water resources infrastructure
5. Phytoremediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon compounds
6. Contaminant transport, attenuation and remediation of chlorinated solvents
7. Impact organic carbon in aquifer and river bed sediments
8. Arsenic mobilization and transport in aquifers.