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J-WAFS Food amp Water NewsJuly 2017

In this issue

JshyWAFS and MIT newsJshyWAFS highlight Seeking solutions to summer mortality syndrome Bostonshyarea water and food eventsFunding and other opportunities

J‑WAFS and MIT News

Three MIT Students Selected for Inaugural J-WAFS Fellowships for Water SolutionsJshyWAFS is pleased to announce our 2017shy2018 fellows Three students were selected for one semesterof funding each to support their research in water supply Sarah Fletcher PhD candidate at MITsInstitute for Data Systems and Society and Omar Labban PhD candidate in the Department ofMechanical Engineering were named 2017 Rasikbhai L Meswani Fellows for Water Solutions TzushyChieh Tang (Zijay) PhD candidate in the Department of Biological Engineering was awarded a JshyWAFS Graduate Student Fellowship Join us in congratulating the 2017shy2018 JshyWAFS fellows 2017shy2018 Rasikbhai L Meswani Fellows for Water Solutions

Sarah Fletcher is a PhD candidate at the Institute for DataSystems and Society at MIT who is also affiliated with the JointProgram on the Science and Policy of Global Change Sarahfocuses on sustainable water resource system planning with anemphasis on developing flexible water supply planning toolsthat can help policymakers meet societal needs for water in theface of an uncertain future Sarah works across disciplines ndashsystems engineering hydrology and public policy ndash to analyzecomplex sociotechnical problems and communicate solutions tostakeholders The Meswani Fellowship will support Sarahrsquos work to develop a

framework for (1) modeling and managing the uncertainties that water supply planners face (includinginconsistent rainfall and runoff levels population growth and climate change impacts) and the prioritiesof key stakeholders (eg reliability of service cost and environmental protection) and (2) evaluating thepotential for the design of proactive flexible engineering infrastructure and policy to minimize the riskfrom uncertainties Fletcher is applying this framework to watershysupply planning challenges in AustraliaKenya and Saudi Arabia

Omar Labban is a PhD candidate in the Department ofMechanical Engineering at MIT He is interested in theintersection of thermal sciences with membrane technology anddesalination and recently collaborated with a team ofinternational researchers to develop new hollow fibernanofiltration modules that can operate under very lowpressures for desalination pretreatment and scaling mitigation Omar also worked on employing membrane technology indehumidification and cooling as part of an MIT study focused onnextshygeneration HVAC technologies He is motivated by theways membrane technology can lower the energy use andenvironmental footprint of current desalination technologies andpave the way for more efficiently and sustainably produced

desalinated water The Meswani Fellowship will support Omar as he builds on this research He is now conducting a closeanalysis of how and why nanofiltration can improve reverse osmosis technology for desalination Topursue this goal he will investigate (1) separation efficacy and thermodynamics (2) system design andeconomics and (3) membrane fouling and scaling Omarrsquos work seeks to create a foundation ofknowledge that can support the development of more efficient and sustainable desalination technologies

in the future by using nanotechnologies 2017shy2018 JshyWAFS Graduate Student Fellow

TzushyChieh Tang (Zijay) is a PhD candidate in the Departmentof Biological Engineering at MIT where he works as a researchassistant in both the Synthetic Biology Group in the ResearchLaboratory of Electronics (RLE) and the Mediated Matterresearch group in the MIT Media Lab Zijay is interested inbiologically inspired engineering His current researchcombines synthetic biology and materials design to buildfunctional living materials that can sense compute memorizeand respond to environmental stimuli The JshyWAFS Graduate Student Fellowship is supporting Zijayrsquosresearch into the development of genetically engineered

microbes that could cheaply and effectively be used as water quality sensors He has already workedwith a team at MIT to build hydrogels that can contain these microbes to become a set of wearable livingmaterials which fluoresce when they come in contact with certain chemicals By closing the technologygap between selective electrodes that are affordable but lack the sensitivity to meet government testingrequirements and the expensive processes that are currently used to detect contaminants in the waterhe aims to have real world impact with his research an accessible technology that could help raisepublic awareness about water quality and water security Honorable Mention

One student Mathieu Dahan was selected to receive Honorable Mentionfor the 2017 JshyWAFS fellowships in recognition of his outstanding academicaccomplishment and research performance Mathieu is a PhD candidate inthe computational science and engineering program in the Department ofCivil and Environmental Engineering His work applies game theory tourban water resource sensing allocation risk assessment and monitoringin order to make it easier to control water network use and maximizeemergency response strategies The Rasikbhai L Mswani Fellowship for Water Solutions and the JshyWAFS

Graduate Student Fellowship Program provide one semester of funding to selected students who arepursuing research related to water and water supply at MIT For more information about the fellowshipplease contact Andi Sutton communications and program manager at arsuttonmitedu

J-WAFS Director Discusses Food and Water Innovation

This June at conferences and in writtenremarks Prof Lienhard presented examplesof how MIT research is developing solutionsto various water and food challenges On June 12th Prof Lienhard gave a speechat the 2017 EAT Stockholm FoodForum which included examples of JshyWAFSshyfunded research and innovation in food andagriculture View the speech On June 22nd he published an OpshyEd inThe Mark News about the integral roledesalination plays in ensuring a sustainablewater supply for growing populations acrossthe globe Read the OpshyEd

MIT Chemistry Department Research in Water and Food

In an MIT School of Science article postedonline in June two professors who areseeking solutions to current and future waterand food supply problems were featured Assistant professor Gabriela SchlaushyCohenis looking at the mechanics of photosynthesisto find ways to maximize plants growthpotential in order to increase food productionAnother avenue of this research couldimprove efficiency and yield in solar powertechnologies Associate professor Mircea

Dincă seeks to to address the problem of fresh water access in arid regions by using metalorganic frameworks (MOFs) to pull water from the atmosphere Along with coshyPI Evelyn Wang Gail EKendall Associate Professor he recently received a twoshyyear seed grant from JshyWAFS for this research Read more

MIT PhD Student Recognized for Work on Water SupplyPlanning

JshyWAFS Meswani Fellow Sarah Fletcher(pictured on the right) who is an MIT PhDstudent in the Institute for Data Systemsand Society and affiliated with the JointProgram on the Science and Policy of GlobalChange was recently recognized for herinnovative work on water supply planning InJune she received the best presentationaward at the Technology Management andPolicy Graduate Consortium at the StateUniversity of New York at Stony Brook for herproject entitled ldquoFlexible water supplyplanning under multiple uncertainties Adifferentiated approach Read more

MIT Student Startup Wins an Infy Maker Award

PipeGuard an MIT student startup that haswon several MIT entrepreneurship awardsthis year was counted among the 25 winnersfrom across the US of the InfosysFoundations 2017 Infy Maker Awards PipeGuard has developed a sensor that canbe sent through water pipes to detect leaksIts a technology that could radically reducewater loss in urban water systems Read more

J‑WAFS Highlight

Seeking solutions to summer mortality syndrome Summer mortality syndrome It sounds like a tongueshyinshycheek reference to what happens to ones workethic after spring semester finals are over But itrsquos not students who can become infected ndash itrsquos oysters This term refers to mass dieshyoffs that have increasingly occurred in the wild and on oyster farms In factit has contributed to an increase in oyster mortality rates from 60 ndash 90 in some species in recentyears One of the oyster species that has been hardest hit is Crassostrea gigas (pictured below) This oystervariety has been widely used over the last 30 years in aquaculture across the globe particularly inCanada the US Mexico France Ireland China and Japan Aquaculture supplies more than 50

percent of all seafood produced for humanconsumption with oysters and other shellfishrepresenting a significant proportionAquaculture productivity will need to rise tomeet the demands of a rising population theUN Food and Agriculture Organizationprojects that 40 million more tons of seafoodwill need to be produced per year by 2030 Since oyster and shellfish farming has muchless environmental impact than animalhusbandry on land stabilizing healthypopulations for sale and consumption andsupporting their increased production canalso support the environment During their

life cycle farmed oyster colonies can filter contaminates from seawater contribute to nutrient cycling andsequestration and stabilize sediment to protect shorelines Therefore finding a way to increaseresilience to infection and disease in farmed oyster populations is both economically andenvironmentally helpful Martin Polz professor of civil and environmental engineering atMIT is leading a research group in using environmental microbiology to find a cure for summer mortalitysyndrome that does not require antibiotics ldquoThe use of antibiotics is still widespread with highly negativeeffect on the environmentrdquo says Polz ldquoIn countries where the use of antibiotics has already beenoutlawed the industry is really struggling to come up with an alternativerdquo The syndrome has beenassociated with various physiological stressors viruses and other pathogens though recent researchhas shown that the infection is caused by a rapid colonization by specific bacteria of the genus Vibrio Polz and his team have been studying this group of organisms for quite some time Finding an effective solution to these pathogen outbreaks is where Polz and his lab come in As he putsit ldquoour goal is to make seafood production more sustainable and resilientrdquo They plan on developingviruses which are bacteriarsquos natural enemies to serve as targeted rapid and effective controls for pathogen outbreaks at shellfish farms Since these viruses MIT Professor Martin Polz (bacteriophages) are highly specific to the host they infect his team plans to develop virus ldquococktailsrdquo that target many different varieties of harmful bacteria in order torapidly suppress their growth and preserve farmed oyster and other shellfish populations

Polzrsquos team began by isolating a collection of Vibrio bacteria and a variety of viruses that can to do thiswork They used genome sequencing to categorize each one developing a unique dataset that allowsthem to be highly specific in matching a virus type with possible bacterial targets By using genomesequencing the team is able to characterize the genetic mechanism for antibiotic resistance amongbacteria The dataset constitutes an important foundation from which they are now designing the viruscocktails Specificity and diversity are key elements in this work because of the wide variety ofinteractions between a bacteriophage and Vibrio host bacteria that can happen The team identified upto 90000 possibilities which demonstrates the rich network of infection and resistance that happensbetween these organisms

But to design an effective virus cocktail the team has to consider bacteriarsquos ability to evolve a naturalresistance The cocktails are designed to have sufficient virus variability to stay one step ahead of abacterial populations resistance In the coming year they plan on developing and testing variouscombinations in the lab by specifically assessing the variation of virus receptors within approximately1000 host bacteria genomes They will conduct largeshyscale infection experiments in order to bestsimulate what happens in natural settings

Their last step will be a test of the viruscocktails in the field To do this Polz iscollaborating with Frederique Le Roux who isat the Statione Biologique de Roscoff inFrance one of the oldest marine stations inEurope Le Roux and her team havedeveloped a specific strain of juvenile oystersthat are pathogen free which make themperfect candidates for these tests Thecontrolled conditions under which they areraised allow for Polzrsquos group to regulate eachstage of bacterial infection by the virus

cocktail Oysters farmed in rows in Normandy France With current farmed oyster populations fluctuating widely from year to year due to summer mortalitysyndrome and other pathogen outbreaks the research that Polz and his team is undertaking may be thekey to future sustainability and resiliency of shellfish aquaculture If successful his methodology couldalso serve as a model for other seafood production industries where virus cocktails could support thehealthy antibioticshyfree farmed shellfish populations that are needed to feed growing demand

Boston‑area Water and Food Events

NEWIN Symposium on Water Innovation Join the New England Water Innovation Network (NEWIN) for a twoshyday symposium on waterinnovation This years focus is on innovating a new future for wastewater management and involvespanels on technology and policy the role of academia in innovation innovation in large watertechnologies and other presentations and networking opportunities The event will also include a watertechnology startshyup bootcamp on September 17th Registration for both events is required When September 18th 8 AM shy 730 PMWhere Worcester Polytechnic Institute Worcester MA More info and registration

Funding and Other Opportunities

Solve MIT Seeking Proposals for Food and Water AccessSolutions for Urban Areas Solve MIT in partnership with Climate CoLab is looking for tech solutions for Sustainable UrbanCommunities as well as four other global challenges Propose a replicable design for an urbancommunity space that is both a source for food and water and a vehicle for messaging aboutsustainability in food and water production and consumption One winner will be awarded an Arts andCulture Mentorship Prize and be matched with mentors selected by cellist YoshyYo Ma Submissiondeadline August 1st 2017 Click here for more information

Inaugural NYC Food Tank Summit Apply for Tickets Food Tank in partnership with Rethink Food Waste Through Economics and Data (ReFED) and withsupport from The Rockefeller Foundation will present a oneshyday summit on September 13th 2017 titledFocusing on Food Loss and Waste Click here to apply

Northeast Graduate Student Water Symposium 2017Attend the Northeast Graduate Student Water Symposium (NEGSWS) on September 8th shy 10th 2017The symposium includes studentshyled sessions and discussions on regional approaches to researchneeds funding and teaching needs on watershyrelated subjects More information is available here

Call for Community Input Science Breakthroughs in Foodand Agriculture Throughout the next six months the National Academies of Sciences Engineering and MedicinesScience Breakthroughs 2030 will explore new scientific approaches and ideas in food and agricultureIndividuals can share ideas insights and tools via the projects website After collecting input the studycommittee will produce a report describing ambitious and achievable scientific pathways to addressingproblems and opportunities in the food and agriculture system More information and idea submission

Students Apply for an Emerging Scholar Award for theCommon Ground International Conference on FoodStudies Common Ground research network is hosting the 2017 International Conference on Food Studies inRome Italy on October 26shy27th 2017 Current graduate students working on topics in food studies canapply for an Emerging Scholar Award for the conference Award winners receive free registration to theconference and have an opportunity to facilitate conference discussions moderate panels or present More information and online application

Water Data Challenge Research Grant Competition The Government of Australia and partners including the World Bank are launching the Water DataChallenge This research grant competition seeks breakthroughs in enabling lowshyincome farmers toaccess timely water data to support resilience and improve water management Applications areaccepted on a rolling basis for planning grants of $10000 USD and winners will be announced in July2017 First round winners will be eligible for earlyshystage awards up to $250000 USD and readyshytoshyscaleawards up to $1 million USD

Copyright copy 2017 MIT Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab All rights reserved

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