CEE Seminar: Searching for Core Microbiome in Wastewater Treatment Plant Bioreactors

Abstract: Core microbiome in activated sludge wastewater treatment bioreactors is important in interpreting the ecology of microbial consortia in the habitat. To search for core microbiome, we analyzed 16S rRNA gene sequences collected temporally from 39 samples in six full-scale wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) located in Korea and China. In the seminar, I will present several ecological behaviors of core microbiome observed in the treatment plants, such as patch dynamics, functional redundancy and species sorting. This study will provide insight into the activated sludge bacteria that commonly occur.

Speaker Bio: Hee-Deung Park is a professor at the School of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at Korea University, Seoul, South Korea. He received his Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and M.S. and B.S. in biology from Korea University, Seoul, Korea. Prior to joining the faculty at Korea University, he worked at Kolon Engineering and Construction, in South Korea and conducted postdoctoral research at Stanford University. His main research interest involves identifying microbial community compositions in environmental engineering settings such as activated sludge reactors, anaerobic digesters and membrane filters, and exploring the correlations between community information and the function of environmental engineering systems. He uses modern culture-independent molecular biological tools for a rapid, precise, unbiased and high-throughput examination of environmental samples. The final goal of his research is to provide microbiological information critical to the optimal design and operation of environmental engineering systems.