WEST Center welcomes visitors

WEST faculty and staff regularly host visitors at the busy research facility off Camino del Cerro and I10. April 2025 was an especially dynamic time with visitors ranging from incoming PhD students, to international researchers from Australia (University of Technology Sydney), to a delegation from Kazakhstan interested in agricultural/food safety and water reuse technologies.

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One of the largest groups to visit WEST Center in the spring was from Desert View High School. This local Tucson group consisted of junior high school students completing a course in honors chemistry. With guidance from instructor Cynthia Lopez, they had participated in a TCE alternative degreaser research project, and then visited WEST Center to learn more about water purification technologies and related careers. The group was introduced to the breadth of water-energy projects at WEST Center; wastewater based epidemiology (WBE); and research on incidence and mobility of PFAS in the environment by WEST Director, Dr. Ian Pepper. They were also given a tour of WEST by Chemical and Environmental Engineering (CHEE) researcher, Dr. Bianca Miguel de Souza Chaves. 

Visitors to WEST Center have an opportunity to see equipment used for water purification and water quality testing in both engineering and microbiology-focused laboratories. Examples of technologies are the WEST Center’s reverse osmosis (RO) system; pilot scale advanced water purification (AWP) components; and experimental heat-driven water purification units. Specialized and sensitive instruments used to analyze water composition, such as an LC-MS, are also explained, as are methods used to detect and measure microbial pathogens in varying water qualities. 
 

WEST Center has several tours scheduled in the upcoming months, including during summer 2025. To inquire about a visit to the UA research facility, contact WEST Program Coordinator, Sarah Prasek.