VP of Research and Dean of Graduate Affairs Stephen Welter announced the three winners of the Areas of Excellence awards for 2015. They include the “Blue Gold: Mitigating the Effects of Water Scarcity” proposal, the “Smart Health Institute: Wearable Biomedical Sensors for Precision Medicine” proposal and the “Digital Humanities and Global Diversity”. The CHHS Dean’s office is excited to share additional news about two of these areas with CHHS faculty leadership and involvement.
Blue Gold: Mitigating the Effects of Water Scarcity
Founding Members
Richard Gersberg, Interim Director, School of Public Health, College of Health and Human Services; Eunha Hoh, Associate Professor, Division Head of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, College of Health and Human Services; Natalie Mladenov, Assistant Professor, Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering; Trent Biggs, Associate Professor, Geography, College of Arts and Letters; Kathryn Thorbjarnarson, Associate Professor, Geological Sciences, College of Sciences
Description
The availability and quality of fresh water are critical for a sustainable society. The current water-based challenges facing the global community, including our region of San Diego County, Northern Baja California, and the Imperial Valley, are projected to intensify and also arguably represent near-future scenarios for many other domestic and international regions. Future water security in many areas of the world, including southern California, will require both increased supply through wastewater reuse and desalination, and demand management through integrated resource management strategies. Nonpoint-source pollution will continue to harm downstream ecosystems and shallow subsurface aquifers. Alternative water supply strategies, including wastewater reuse, can also have ecological benefits by reducing discharges into the environment. Thus, Blue Gold – the availability of fresh water and the health of watersheds are inextricably linked and increasingly tied to issues of energy and technology as human population, societal demand, and climate change intensify. Our vision is that SDSU will become a global leader in developing advanced understanding of and solutions for water resources issues in water-scarce areas, using the San Diego-Border region as a model that can be applied in other regions experiencing similar water scarcity, including areas of active research by the 5 core faculty (India, Brazil, Mexico, southern Africa). For more information, please contact Dr. Gersberg at rgersber@sdsu.edu.
Smart Health Institute: Wearable Biomedical Sensors for Precision Medicine
Founding Members
Kee Moon, Professor and Interim Chair, Mechanical Engineering; William Tong, Distinguished Professor and Chair, Chemistry and Biochemistry; Sam Kassegne, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering; Yusuf Ozturk, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering; Sara Gombatto, Assistant Professor, Doctor of Physical Therapy Program.
Description
The proposed center will develop research programs with potential applications to a wide range of fields including health, medical innovation and devices, disease diagnostics, and wireless communication. To accomplish this goal, we will build a multi-college and trans-disciplinary team of researchers. This diverse group of trans-disciplinary researchers will focus on developing next generation health sensor technologies ranging from portable, wearable and minimally intrusive sensors that can provide real-time health monitoring and integration into rehabilitation assessment, intervention and long-term follow-up of patients to compact, label-free biomedical sensors with sensitivities down to single molecules, or even nanoparticles that have been a dream of scientists for years. The Smart Health Institute will address the core technology for smart healthcare that is one of the key challenges in the medical community. For more information, please contact Dr. Moon at kmoon@sdsu.edu.
