Early Career Hydrogeologists’ Network Technical Meetings
All (any career stage) are welcome to this free event!
Date and Time: 5:30 to 6:30 pm, Wednesday 6th November 2024
Location: Environment Canterbury, 200 Tuam St., Ōtautahi / Christchurch
(Waimakariri Room on the ground floor)
Access: through main entrance (accessible door) on Tuam Street
A link will be shared with those from outside Christchurch who are interested to join online.
Presentations
Time: 5:45 pm
Mel Knottenbelt (Environment Canterbury)
Title: Nitrate nitrogen insights from a new source of historic groundwater data
Background: Mel has been a Science Analyst in ECan’s Groundwater team for nearly 2.5 years, focusing on groundwater data analysis. Before moving into the environmental space, Mel completed a Master’s in Microbiology and Immunology and worked as a scientific content creator for a biotech company.
Presentation: To better predict groundwater quality into the future, we need to understand what it was in the past. This presentation explores a newly uncovered source of historical groundwater quality data for Canterbury, dating from 1901 to 1991. The discussion will focus on the valuable insights these records provide on nitrate nitrogen concentrations over the decades, and how modern data visualisation tools, like Power BI, were used to process and analyse this new source of information.
Sujani Ariyadasa (ESR)
Title: Surface-modified biopolymer microparticles as surrogates for investigating Legionella biofilm attachment in plumbing systems
Background: Sujani is a groundwater microbiology scientist in the Water and Environment group of ESR Christchurch Science Centre. She obtained her PhD in Biotechnology from the University of Canterbury. Sujani’s PhD project focused on developing biosynthetic bacterial mimics for studying Legionella pneumophila persistence in engineered water systems.
Presentation: Legionella pneumophila is a causative agent of legionellosis, a form of community-acquired pneumonia. Despite numerous legionellosis disease outbreaks worldwide linked to plumbing systems, a representative surrogate for L. pneumophila has not been established. This talk describes the development of a novel, eco-friendly biopolymer surrogate with size, shape, and surface properties similar to L. pneumophila and its validation in laboratory-scale bioreactors.