- Jessica Kaminsky
Jessica Kaminsky, a doctoral student working with Assistant Professor Amy Javernick-Will, was awarded a three-year fellowship through the US Environmental Protection Agency's Science To Achieve Results (STAR) program. Jessica is a student studying in the Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities. Her research aims to improve the sustainability of household sanitation infrastructure.
Household sanitation systems, like septic tanks, are one of the most common sources of groundwater contamination in the United States. Both domestically and internationally, they suffer from high failure rates. While some of these failures are due to poor design, many are instead caused by inadequate maintenance and operation. To address this issue, Jessica's research will quantify the social networks that impact sanitation systems in an effort to understand how knowledge flow impacts maintenance and operation.