Emerging Contaminants Short Course 2026

Dr. Patrick McNamara is a Professor of Environmental Engineering at Marquette University and a Wastewater Process Engineer with Black & Veatch. He has over 15 years of experience in managing wastewater solids and residuals, and his research group has been investigating emerging contaminants for a decade. His work is funded by the National Science Foundation, utility companies, and foundations. He has over 80 peer-reviewed journal publications.

Dr. Brooke Mayer is a Professor in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at Marquette University.  She graduated from the Environmental Engineering program at Arizona State University (B.S. – 2004, M.S. – 2006, Ph.D. – 2008), where she taught from 2008 – 2012.  Her research and teaching interests focus on physical/chemical water treatment, particularly microbial disinfection and nutrient recovery.

Diana Aga is a Distinguished Professor at the University at Buffalo (UB), the State University of New York, where she holds the Henry Woodburn Professorship in the Department of Chemistry and serves as Director of the UB RENEW Institute (Research and Education in Energy, Environment, and Water). An internationally recognized expert in analytical and environmental chemistry, her research focuses on the fate, transport, transformation, and treatment of chemicals of emerging concern, particularly per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and other persistent organic pollutants. Using advanced targeted and non-targeted analytical approaches, her work has advanced understanding of contaminant bioaccumulation, toxicity, and environmental impacts in humans and wildlife, while informing the development of innovative technologies for contaminant removal from wastewater. Dr. Aga earned a bachelor's degree in Agricultural Chemistry from the University of the Philippines Los Baños, a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Kansas, and completed postdoctoral training at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG), Switzerland. She is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society and has received numerous honors recognizing her research, leadership, and excellence in graduate mentoring.

Jessie Calteux is a third-year PhD student at Marquette University, where she also completed her undergraduate degree in 2024. Through her research, she seeks to understand the fate of PFAS in biosolids during drying. As a lifelong resident of Milwaukee County, she has always had a deep-rooted appreciation of Lake Michigan and a desire to take care of the environment. She is truly grateful that her work allows her to translate this passion into a degree, while staying close to home.

Christian Kassar is a Process Engineer with Black & Veatch specializing in treatment technologies for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). His work focuses on evaluating, piloting, and implementing PFAS treatment systems for drinking water, wastewater, and landfill leachate applications. Christian has supported treatment technology evaluations ranging from conventional approaches such as granular activated carbon (GAC) and ion exchange (IX) to emerging technologies including foam fractionation, electrochemical oxidation, and supercritical water oxidation. He has authored multiple PFAS-related publications and regularly presents on PFAS treatment, pilot testing, and technology implementation at industry conferences. Christian earned his M.S. in Civil, Environmental, and Sustainable Engineering from Arizona State University, where his research focused on PFAS removal and regeneration of ion exchange media.

Dr. Malcolm Taylor is a principal Environmental Engineer with WSSC Water, bringing over 25 years of experience in the water & wastewater industry. His work focuses on optimization of advanced wastewater treatment processes and development of environmentally sustainable biosolids management practices. Before coming to WSSC Water, Malcolm earned his PE as a consulting engineer and worked at Penn State University, where he received his PhD. Malcolm has served on the Board of Trustees of the Mid-Atlantic Biosolids Association since 2020.

Cayla Cook Carbone is a technical expert on water quality with more than 11 years of experience in the water industry. She serves as Vice Chair of the WEF Emerging Contaminants Community and actively designs treatment and remediation strategies for contaminants including PFAS and arsenic. Her focus is delivering projects that elegantly navigate complex regulatory and technical landscapes in drinking water.

Jeffrey Hlad has more than 20 years of experience in water and wastewater treatment design, construction, commissioning, regulatory compliance, and applied research. As Senior Wastewater Process Engineering Manager at Metro Water Recovery, he leads the process engineering and data analytics teams and has managed much of Metro’s PFAS research on wastewater, biosolids, soils, groundwater, and crops. Jeff holds BS and MS degrees from the University of Colorado Boulder.                   

Andrew is the VP of Innovation and Development for Eurofins Environment Specialty Services. He brings over 25 years of experience in the environmental laboratory industry with a focus on GC-HRMS and LC-MS/MS analyses. These approaches have focused on PCBs, Chlorinated Dioxins, PBDEs, PFAS, and human biomonitoring. He is passionate about passive sampling, microplastic analysis, and contaminants of emerging concern. Andrew is the originator of the PFAS Exposure™ fingerprick blood test and lead developer for EPA draft method 1634, 6PPD-quinone analysis in aqueous samples. Andrew holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology, concentrating in Biochemistry from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

Carsten Prasse, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Whitening School of Engineering and the Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Carsten obtained his PhD in Chemistry at the Federal Institute of Hydrology in Koblenz, Germany, under the guidance of Dr. Thomas Ternes. After completing postdoctoral work at the University of California at Berkeley working with Dr. David Sedlak, he joined Johns Hopkins University as a faculty member.

His research focuses on the fate of contaminants in the built and natural environment with a focus on the identification of previously unknown organic chemicals and their transformation products. Prioritizing which compounds are most threatening to human and environmental health is a great challenge given the large number of anthropogenic chemicals. To tackle this problem, his research group is developing new methodologies to assess exposures to toxic compounds.