News

With compelling footage, a new Landmark Stories film focuses on how wastewater testing became a global public health tool. The production documents the work of Dr. Ian Pepper, WEST Director, as well as wastewater monitoring efforts in Yuma County, AZ.

WEST Center faculty, staff and students recognized as winners of the 2022 Agriculture, Life and Veterinary Sciences, and Cooperative Extension (ALVSCE) Team Award for extraordinary efforts in monitoring pandemic conditions on campus via wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE).

University of Arizona PhD candidate, Sarah Abney, was selected to receive a prestigious Fulbright- Garcia Robles Postdoctoral Scholar Award. Ms. Abney will graduate in May 2022 and spend 2022-2023 in Mexico with El Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán, A.C. (CICY).

In an episode of NPR's Here & Now, University of Arizona's Sharon Megdal explains Gov. Doug Ducey's idea for a desalination project and notes additional strategies to bolster water supply, including greater use of treated wastewater. WEST Center is a hub for research on these efforts, including technologies for brine management, energy reduction, and water reuse.

At the 2022 AZ Water Research Symposium, researchers and utility representatives shared information and discoveries aimed at advancing the long term health, safety, and reliability of Arizona water supplies.

In an NPR podcast in March 2022, correspondents and scientists discussed what the rise in cases elsewhere means for the U.S., how the U.S. is looking to sewage to detect any rise in infections here, and the status of COVID relief funding. WEST Center has been at the forefront of monitoring the pandemic via wastewater.

WEST director, Dr. Ian Pepper, will serve on the Environmental Protection Agency’s newly-formed Science Advisory Board Biosolids Panel. The panel will provide independent advice regarding the Agency’s draft Biosolids Chemical Risk Assessment and Biosolids Screening Tool.

In an NPR radio segment of The Buzz, researchers - including those at WEST Center - share what they've learned during two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the University of Arizona Outstanding Faculty Awards ceremony in mid-January, 2022, Dr. Ian Pepper was officially inducted as a University Regents Professor. The WEST Center Director was one of six professors to receive this high distinction in 2021.