Mira Chaplin to Pioneer Advanced Greywater Safety Research at Eawag

Dr. Mira Chaplin has been awarded a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship at Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Research and Technology. Located in Dübendorf, Switzerland, Eawag is a world-leading aquatic research institution, dedicated to bridging the gap between ecological theory and practical water management. During her tenure, Dr. Chaplin will investigate a critical frontier in sustainable infrastructure: the effectiveness of onsite greywater treatment membrane bioreactors (MBRs) in removing human viruses. Greywater - the 75% of household wastewater excluding toilet waste - can be treated locally rather than at centralized facilities, improving energy use and resilience. Membrane bioreactors, which combine biological treatment with membrane filtration, are promising for greywater treatment. However, the magnitude and variability of virus removal within these compact systems remain poorly understood, creating a significant research gap that Dr. Chaplin’s work aims to close.

Dr. Chaplin will execute an ambitious two-year research program centered on the innovative use of UV-inactivated human viruses as surrogates for infectious viruses in greywater treatment. These safe, non-infectious particles allow for precise validation of full-scale systems where spiking live pathogens would be impossible. Working within the Water Hub at NEST, a modular research building in Dübendorf, her study will track the reduction of four pathogens representing potential greywater health risks - norovirus, adenovirus, rotavirus, and coxsackievirus. She will determine how water quality parameters, membrane characteristics, and virus attachment to particles influence removal of these four viruses. This study will produce a first-of-its-kind dataset that will help engineers design more resilient, small-scale water reuse systems for a changing global climate.