Mary Jo Kirisits
Assistant Professor
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Telephone: (512) 232-7120
Fax: (512) 471-5870
e-mail: kirisits@mail.utexas.edu
Dr. Mary Jo Kirisits earned her Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2000. She joined the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin in 2004.
Her research emphasizes the importance of applying the tools of molecular biology and microbiology to better understand natural and engineered biological systems. In addition, her work aims to optimize the performance of engineered biological treatment processes and to prevent their catastrophic failure. Applications of her work include assessments of microbial arsenic oxidation in drinking water, microbial perchlorate and bromate reduction in drinking water, hydrocarbon biodegradation in freshwater sediments, sulfur oxidation in biofilters, fecal bacteria sources in harvested rainwater, transport of fecal bacteria in surface water runoff, phenotypic variation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms, and microbial community structure in pediatric ear infections.
Research interests:
- Biological water treatment processes
- Application of molecular biology to water treatment processes and distribution systems
- Biofilms