At the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ – Boulder, Dr. Cresten Mansfeldt is a faculty member housed in the Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering Department in the Environmental Engineering Program. His background resides in Environmental Engineering, Environmental Microbiology, Bioinformatics, and Environmental Chemistry. Dr. Mansfeldt joined CU after having the privilege of working as a FS8 Research Scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) in the Department of Environmental Chemistry.
The interaction between humans and microbial processes on multiple scales (industrial, municipal, riverine) captures the majority of Dr. Mansfeldt’s research interests. His most recent projects include modelling the community dynamics involved in wastewater microbial systems, determining the interaction of Eukaryotic microbes with trace organic contaminants in municipal waste, and tracking the influence of the treated wastewater treatment plant effluent on riverine systems. He combines computational simulations, molecular microbiology, reactor design, high-resolution analytics, and environmental monitoring to explore these topics.
To learn more about the ongoing research, check out the Research Page and follow @drmansfeldt on Twitter.
Currently, the Mansfeldt lab is recruiting a PhD student for Fall 2020. Additionally, the lab is always looking for masters and undergraduate students curious and passionate about the smallest of organisms. Please contact the lab for more information!
Interests
Biological Control of Organic Contaminants
- Monitor and describe the fate and biotransformation of anthropogenic pollutants in aquatic systems
- Enhance and domesticate microbial communities associated with bioremediation, bioproduction, health-facilities, and public infrastructure
- Design specialized reactors to target the removal of specific classes of organic contaminants
Structure and Function of Microbial Communities
- Construct and apply statistical and mechanistic models predicting the behavior of microorganisms in engineered environments
- Assemble artificial communities to explore functional redundancy and ecotoxicological risk
- Monitor perturbations of natural communities to explore resiliency, succession, and potential hazards
Resource Recovery and Management
- Construct new reactor designs to target the economic accumulation of elements and materials demanded by commercial enterprises
- Explore novel biochemistry and cell morphologies to develop new approaches to material development and accumulation
- Screen in a massively-parallel manner the toxicological risk of individual and mixtures of industrial and consumer chemicals to address a serious current knowledge gap