Dr Sawannee Sutheeworapong, Ms. Pavinee Patanachan, Ms. Rattikan Neamchan, and Ms. Thunchanok Thongsamerrattikan from KMUTT in Thailand visited us to be trained in molecular microbiology, including next generation sequencing with the MinION.

I had a wonderful time getting to know other water researchers at the Kohn-IASH Workshop: Ensuring water safety in a changing climate by enhanced water and wastewater treatment, organized by the Royal Society at Chicheley Hall, home of the Kavli Royal Society International Centre.

This Wednesday we field-tested our portable water quality laboratory, which includes the MinION for sequencing environmental DNA, at Cockle Park farm. It was a success. The photo shows Kishor Acharya and Adrian Blackburn at the end of the day when we returned to the Cassie Building, with the labtop and MinION on the back seat already generating tens of thousands of reads to characterize the microbiome of water samples.

Prof Kumar inspects the National Green Infrastructure Facility, and the Propelair toilets

This week we have the pleasure of hosting Professor Manish Kumar from IIT Gandhinagar. Together we had a look at Newcastle’s unique Urban Water Infrastructure Research facilities, which include the rainwater harvesting systems in the Devonshire and Urban Sciences Building, the National Green Infrastructure Facilities with our biochar amended lysimeters, the ultra-low water use Propelair toilets, and the Urban Observatory.