Research on phosphatis by Kang and Noguera

From time to time, the editorial board of JEE invites papers from particularly talented researchers in areas of broad interest to environmental engineering. Our intent is to take advantage of their experience and acknowledged record of research in selecting and inviting authors to participate. Thus, each invited paper is likely to give an unusual amount of attention to exposing the state of the art, as well as providing evidence of important original research in a specific area of environmental engineering. Do not be surprised if you find yourself enjoying these articles, even if they are not directed at one of your primary areas of engineering experience or interest. Daniel Noguera of the University of Wisconsin is the senior author of the invited paper published in this issue of JEE with Dae-Wook Kang as the first author. Together, they discuss what is known and, as importantly, what remains unknown regarding biochemical removal of phosphorus during wastewater treatment, with particular attention to establishing conditions for efficient removal of phosphorus in engineered systems. This is a rapidly evolving and important area of environmental research—even more so than I expected when I invited Daniel to write—and a bit of mystery remains in that the responsible microorganisms have been characterized to a surprising extent without ever being isolated.

About the senior author—Daniel Noguera earned a Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1996 and began teaching at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1997, where he remains. He has distinguished himself in a number of areas of applied microbial research including those related to (1) bioenergy development, (2) microbial ecology of water distribution systems, (3) biological nutrient removal during wastewater treatment, and (4) biofilm dynamics/biofouling, among others. In broad terms, his contributions have been in the areas of discovery, identification, and characterization of microorganisms of practical relevance to the environment. During his distinguished career, he has received the James M. Montgomery and AEESP M.S. Thesis Award (1992) for “Soluble Microbial Products Modeling in Biological Processes”; an NSF career award for “Microbial Ecology of Nutrient Removal in Aerated-Anoxic Processes” (1999); the Paul L. Busch Award from WERF for “innovative research in the field of microbiology and environmental engineering” (2005); and the Fair Distinguished Engineering Educator Award from WEF (2010). He is an associated editor or member of the editorial board of four outstanding professional journals in applied microbiology.

About the first author—Dae-Wook Kang is a postdoctoral research associate in the Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute. While a Ph.D. student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he studied nitrogen and phosphorus removal in pilot-scale bioreactors, focusing on strategies for isolating phosphorus-removing microorganisms from enrichment cultures. His current research involves characterization of microbial community structure and the metabolic roles of microbial communities in engineered systems and in the human intestine.