Ryan B. Mahoney holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Northeastern University and an M.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder (CU). He has been working as a graduate student in Scott Summers Lab for a year, working with appropriate methods of biochar generation and evaluating adsorption and surface reactions on the media. He received the Mortenson Center’s Certificate in Engineering for Developing Communities, completing a field practicum evaluating rural water and sanitation infrastructure projects in the Amazon region of Peru. His Master’s Report entitled “Chlorine residual control using biochars to facilitate sustained safe water consumption” reviewed the literature on slow uptake and limited sustained use of chlorine for point-of-use water treatment and completed research proposing a way to mitigate this using biochar filters. Additionally he has completed all required coursework related to international development at CU (including WASH, Sustainable Community Development I&II, Disaster Recovery and Response). Mr. Mahoney has significant international water and sanitation experience with the humanitarian non-profit Engineers Without Borders USA. While attending CU he served as project manager for the Engineers Without Borders Chapter at CU (EWB-CU) and traveled to Peru for a total of five months, leading teams of students and professional engineers. The trips included implementation of a gravity fed water system as well as monitoring and evaluation of previous sanitation projects. During his time at NU, he gained valuable experience as Vice President of the EWB-NU and during three 6 month periods of full time employment (‘coops’) working for civil and environmental engineering firms.