Water Resources - Staff Members

Adar, Eilon, Department of Environmental Hydrology and Microbiology

✔Quantitative assessment of groundwater flow systems

✔Sources of recharge in complex arid basins with puzzling geology and scarce hydrological information

✔Mixing Cell Model (MCMtr) approach utilizing hydrochemistry and environmental isotopes coupled with a non-steady flow model

✔The role of water reservoirs and shallow groundwater on top-soil salinization in the Jezreel Valley

✔The effects of forestation over sand-dune terrain on local groundwater reservoirs

✔The dynamics of flow and pollutant transport in a fractured chalk aquitard (low permeable yet fractured formation) in the vicinity of the Ramat Hovav Industrial Park

Arnon, Shai, Department of Environmental Hydrology and Microbiology

✔The study of the fate and transport of contaminants in the environment

✔The integration of hydrology, geochemistry, and environmental microbiology to predict the transport of reactive substances under complex aquatic environments

✔The study of the interaction between hydrodynamic conditions and biogeochemical processes in streams and wetlands

Bernstein, Anat, Department of Environmental Hydrology and Microbiology

✔Groundwater contamination by organic pollutants

✔Degradation processes of organic pollutants

✔Compound-specific isotope analysis

Dahan, Ofer, Department of Environmental Hydrology and Microbiology

✔Vadose zone and groundwater hydrology

✔Quantitative assessment of water infiltration and groundwater recharge

✔Contaminant transport

✔Water flow and contaminant transport through the vadose zone

✔Groundwater recharge

✔Arid land hydrology

✔Development of monitoring technologies for deep vadose zone

Gilor, Osnat, Department of Environmental Hydrology and Microbiology

✔The role of antimicrobials in biofilm formation

✔The diversity of soil bacteria and their role in the ecosystem

✔The use of molecular and experimental methods to study the processes and patterns of microbial ecology and evolution

Gross, Amit, Department of Environmental Hydrology and Microbiology

✔Issues related to water, effluent, and soil qualities as well as their impact on the environment

✔The search for practices to improve water and environmental quality related to contamination by different sources (i.e. aquaculture, wastewater, and saline water).

✔Ecological Sanitation (ECOSAN), aimed at developing and improving means for efficient use and reuse of natural resources

✔Recycling of water and nutrients through the reuse of marginal waters by green solutions

Image result for scott hansen bgu Hansen, Scott, Department of Environmental Hydrology and Microbiology

✔Mathematical and computational modelling of subsurface solute transport, and in particular on how this is impacted by unresolved heterogeneity

✔Development of closure models to average away unresolved heterogeneity, to calibrate predictive models using macroscopic observables, and to develop error envelopes for hydrogeological predictions

✔Transport behavior of reacting solutes in heterogeneous flow fields

✔Analysis of the effect of model (as opposed to measurement) error on predictive accuracy,

✔Stochastic (especially random walk) methods,

✔Multiphase systems and scientific computing

Image result for scott hansen bgu Nejidat, Ali, Department of Environmental Hydrology and Microbiology

✔Microbial ecology and the role of microorganisms in safeguarding environmental quality

✔Availability of water and water quality

✔Prevention of contamination of available water resources

✔Design of recycling schemes for wastewater reuse

✔Ecophysiology and molecular genetics of the chemolithotrophic nitrifying bacteria

✔Bacteria involved in the biodegradation of the environmentally hazardous halo-organics for the remediation of polluted sites

Weisbrod, Noam, Department of Environmental Hydrology and Microbiology

✔Contaminant hydrology

✔Processes at the Earth-atmosphere

✔Fracture flow

✔Colloidal transport

✔Mechanisms controlling colloid-facilitated transport in the subsurface, under a variety of environmental conditions

✔The processes occurring within fractures in the upper vadose zone under arid conditions and their relation to groundwater salinization and Eath-atmosphere gas exchange

✔Unsaturated-zone conditions, where processes at the air-fluid-solid interface play an important role

✔Processes occurring at the interface between fluids, phases and the fluid-matrix, as well as the transition between scales

Yakirevich, Alex, Department of Environmental Hydrology and Microbiology

✔Experimental and theoretical investigation of water flow, solute and heat transfer in porous and fractured media

✔Formulation of mathematical models for multiphase and multicomponent flow and transport in the vadose zone and groundwater system

✔Simulation of saltwater-intrusion problems

✔Simulation of overland flow, solutes transport in runoff and streams

✔Estimating mass-transfer parameters from laboratory- or field-measured water and solute distribution data

Oron, Gideon (Emeritus), Department of Environmental Hydrology and Microbiology

✔Optimal treatment and reclamation of low quality waters in arid and semi-arid regions

✔Field work on various treatment and reclamation system

✔Management modeling towards optimal treatment and reuse of the reclaimed low quality waters

Sorek, Shaul (Emeritus), Department of Environmental Hydrology and Microbiology

✔Theoretical and numerical models of mechanics and transport phenomena for heterogeneous media

✔Decision Support Systems for modeling water management

Desalination and Water Treatment - Staff Members

Arnusch, Christopher J, Department of Desalination and Water Treatment

✔Exploring and developing unconventional ways to improve membrane fabrication and modification using various printing techniques

✔Exploring and developing new materials including graphene-based materials

Image result for avraham beer bgu Be'er, Avraham, Department of Desalination and Water Treatment

✔Intricate collective phenomena in nature

✔Why do bacteria swarm?

✔What are the mechanisms involved during swarming?

✔What are the evolutionary advantages of swarming?

Bernstein, Roy, Department of Desalination and Water Treatment

✔Investigate and broaden the knowledge and the use of material and polymer science in membrane synthesis for environmental and industrial applications

✔Develop and improve polymeric and mixed matrix membranes (hybrid organic inorganic membranes) with specific properties for various applications.

Gilron, Jack , Department of Desalination and Water Treatment

✔Managing brines by volume reduction and mineral

✔recovery Process development for increasing the recovery in desalination processes including scaling prevention

✔Monovalent selective electrodialysis

✔Ion exchange membrane processes for contaminant removal

✔Membrane processes for treatment of industrial waste-streams

Herzberg, Moshe, Department of Desalination and Water Treatment

✔Studies of bacterial biofilms and biofouling of membranes

✔The physico-chemical characteristics and the physiology of the biofouling layer in the membrane

✔Conditions promoting biofilm formation on membranes in water and wastewater treatment facilities

✔Mode of action of agents that interfere with biofilm formation

✔Mechanisms by which biofilms affect membrane performance

✔Conditions promoting initial bacterial attachment

✔The inhibition of biofilm growth mechanisms on "anti-biofouling" modified-surface membranes

Kasher, Roni, Department of Desalination and Water Treatment

✔The development of novel membranes for water desalination and treatment

✔The use of synthetic-organic chemistry approaches to prepare membranes with improved surface properties and solute transport for nanofiltration and reverse-osmosis processes

✔Develop chemical methodologies to connect antimicrobial peptides to reverse-osmosis membranes without loss of peptide activity

✔The mineralization and fouling phenomena of water treatment membranes using novel approach that combines the preparation of unique 'clean' surfaces that mimic RO membrane surface, and evaluating the sorption of organic foulants, with analytical instruments

Nir, Oded, Department of Desalination and Water Treatment

✔Physico-chemical technologies for sustainable desalination, water and wastewater treatment

✔Focus on membrane processes, both pressure driven (RO, NF, UF) and electrically driven (ED, EDBM) in combination with other separation techniques (crystallization, gas-transfer, ion-exchange etc.)

✔Development of computer simulations for physico-chemical water treatment processes combining mass-transport and chemical equilibrium.

✔Resource recovery from wastewater, focusing on Phosphorus

Oren, Yoram, (Emeritus), Department of Desalination and Water Treatment

✔Electrochemical-related issues

✔Studies in electrochemical methods in relation to treatment of water and waste-water

✔Investigating mass transfer in electrochemical processes

✔Investigating hydrogen transport to metals using electrochemical tools

Microbiology and Water Quality - Staff Members

Arnon, Shai, Department of Environmental Hydrology and Microbiology

✔The study of the fate and transport of contaminants in the environment

✔The integration of hydrology, geochemistry, and environmental microbiology to predict the transport of reactive substances under complex aquatic environments

✔The study of the interaction between hydrodynamic conditions and biogeochemical processes in streams and wetlands

Bar-Zeev Edo, Department of Environmental Hydrology and Microbiology

✔Bacterial consortiums in aqueous environments

✔Desalination and water-treatment systems

✔Hydrogel dynamics in marine and freshwater environments

✔The role of planktonic bio-aggregates in biochemical cycles

✔The nexus of desalination and the aquatic environment

✔Biofouling in membrane module designs, from biofilm formation to innovative cleaning approaches