Event
Biofilms - your friend and enemy
Wednesday, July 29, 2020
2:00 p.m.
Zoom, link provided upon registration
Aishah Briscoe
abrisco1@umd.edu
Register: go.umd.edu/faculty-research-register
Join our Zoom sessions with Clark School faculty to learn more about their research and how undergraduate students can get involved.
Since arriving at the University of Maryland, Dr. Kjellerup has continued her research and teaching interests in mixed microbial communities in biofilms and wastewater. Dr. Kjellerup has trained as an environmental engineer and microbiologist specializing in beneficial and detrimental aspects of microbial communities for over 20 years. She has pioneered the application of biofilms on sorptive materials for bioremediation and energy recovery from wastewater and used them to develop novel bioremediation strategies and approaches for groundwater and stormwater clean-up. While at UMD, Dr. Kjellerup has also continued her research in biofilm infections and many undergraduate researchers have provided important contributions to this field as well. She has a strong commitment to undergraduate research with 33 past research undergraduate students, where many have contributed to peer reviewed book chapters and research papers. Currently, Dr. Kjellerup is working with 10 undergraduate students from the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
Dr. Birthe Kjellerup is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Maryland at College Park with a secondary appointment in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering. Dr. Kjellerup began her training at Aalborg University, Denmark, in the Department of Life Sciences, where she received her PhD in 2004 with her thesis titled "Monitoring, detection and control of bacteria involved in biocorrosion in district heating systems" while also doing research in microbial populations in wastewater. As a part of her graduate studies she traveled to the international training center for biofilm research, the Center for Biofilm Engineering (CBE) in Montana, and has continued collaboration with CBE in her current position. Dr. Kjellerup then moved to Baltimore to become a postdoctoral fellow at the Center of Marine Biotechnology to continue her work on environmental biofilms and bioremediation. Dr. Kjellerup became an Assistant Professor in 2009 in the Biology Department at Goucher College, Baltimore, where she stayed until 2014. In January 2015, she accepted a position as Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park.
