Faculty

As a multidisciplinary entity, the Johns Hopkins Center for Water and Health draws on faculty from the Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Whiting School of Engineering's Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering and the School of Medicine.

William P. Ball, PhD, MS, is the Associate Director of the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, is a professional environmental engineer with research and teaching interests primarily in the area of physical/chemical processes.

Edward J. Bouwer, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University and has extensive experience with microbial process engineering and bioremediation processes. Dr. Bouwer’s research interests encompasses factors that influence biotransformation of contaminants, bioremediation for control of contaminated soils and groundwaters, biofilm kinetics, biological processes design in wastewater, industrial, and drinking water treatment, and transport and fate of microorganisms in porous media.

Gilbert Burnham, MD, PhD, is a professor in International Health, and co-director of the Center for Refugee and Disaster Response at the Bloomberg School. He has extensive experience in emergency preparedness and response, particularly in humanitarian needs assessment, and program planning and evaluation that address the needs of vulnerable populations. 

Rita R. Colwell, PhD, MS, is an internationally recognized microbiologist and an expert on global infectious diseases, such as cholera. She is a former director of the National Science Foundation.

Frank Curriero, Phd, MA, is a biostatistician whose work focuses on applications of spatial statistics and geographic information systems in public health.

Maria Elena Figueroa, PhD, is director of the Global Program on Water and Hygiene with the Bloomberg School’s Center for Communication Programs. Her research focuses on understanding behaviors relating to safe water use in developing countries, information that is used to develop related awareness and education campaigns. 

Thaddeus Graczyk, PhD, MSc, is an associate professor in Environmental Health Sciences, whose work focuses on human opportunistic pathogens, especially cryptosporidium, a parasite resistant to chlorine disinfection. Aspects of his research include the recovery of oocysts, cysts and spores from field samples and modes of environmental contamination and pathogen transmission.

Rolf Halden, PhD, MS, PE, is an assistant professor in Environmental Health Sciences. His lab specializes in mass spectrometry, a molecule weighting technology, to identify  and track the distribution of chemical contaminants in the environment. Recent studies have focused on the presence of triclocarban in treated sewage sludge, which is commonly used as crop fertilizer.

Joseph Jacangelo, PhD, is an adjunct associate professor in Environmental Health Sciences. He runs the Center’s membrane filtration research lab where investigators work to discover the mechanisms by which the fast-growing water treatment technology of membrane filtration removes contaminants. The lab also evaluates membrane systems for use in water treatment systems.

Charles O’Melia, PhD, is professor emeritus, Department of  Geography and Environmental Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, whose work over more than four decades contributed substantially to the basic understanding of physical and chemical processes for water treatment and the behavior of particles in the natural water environment.  

Clive Shiff, PhD, associate professor, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, is an internationally known malaria expert with more than 30 years experience as a field biologist and medical entomologist. He coordinates the development of the Malaria Institute at Macha, the School’s field site in Zambia.

Cynthia Sears, MD, professor, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases. Her research focuses on the pathogenesis of enteric infections, including cryptosporidium. She has conducted field studies on the pathogenic parasite in Haiti and Brazil. 
 
Ellen Silbergeld, PhD, professor, Environmental Health Sciences, bridges science and public policy in her research and work. Current research projects include an examination of exposure to mercury in small-scale gold mining; an investigation of the health impacts of industrial poultry production; and a study on urban fishing risks in Baltimore.

Earl Wall, MS, is the director of program development with the Center for Refugee and Disaster Response at the Bloomberg School. He has extensive experience directing humanitarian programs in the developing world.