Support from university community, standout students help project thrive, co-director Tara Kulkarni says
As Norwich University, and the rest of the country, wait for COVID-19 vaccinations to arrive, the interdisciplinary Wastewater-Based Epidemiology Initiative team keeps working to keep campus healthy in the interim, gathering on-campus samples and searching for genetic tracers of the novel coronavirus.
To spread the word, civil and environmental engineering professor Tara Kulkarni, on Tuesday explained the initiative on Waterbury, Vermont, radio station WDEV’s “Vermont Viewpoint” program.
During a half-hour chat, Kulkarni, who co-directs the initiative and directs the university’s Center for Global Resilience and Security, told host Ric Cengeri how an interdisciplinary group of faculty and students, which includes civil engineering, construction management, chemistry and biochemistry and humanities majors, had since September developed a plan to test wastewater from the Northfield Wastewater Treatment Facility and campus manholes.