Core Team Members

Houston Wastewater Epidemiology core team involves an interdisciplinary collaboration of experts from the Houston Health Department, Houston Public Works, and several departments at Rice University. Team members include investigators, expert contributors and advisors, and professional and academic research scientists and engineers who are working to build an advanced wastewater surveillance system for planned responses to viral outbreaks.

Currently, this system is being used to track SARS-CoV-2 infection dynamics across Houston. Plans are being implemented to expand the monitoring system to other targets, such as influenza, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and other pathogens.

Executive Team

Loren Hopkins
Loren Hopkins, Ph.D.

Chief Environmental Science Officer and Bureau Chief, Data Science Division, Houston Health Department
Professor in the Practice of Statistics, Rice University
National Environmental Justice Advisory Council


Lauren Stadler
Lauren Stadler, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University


Katherine Ensor
Kathy Ensor, Ph.D., PStatĀ®

Noah G. Harding Professor of Statistics, Rice University

Body

Houston Health Department Team

R. Schneider, MS

D. Jennings

K. Sheth, MPH

K. Domakonda

T. Farhad, MS

A. Mulenga, MS

K. Caton, MPH

S. Bhandari, PhD

R. German

Body

Houston Health Department Lab

A. Lawal, PhD

R. Penn, MS

P. Brown

J. Myers

J. Fresquez

V. Morga

Body

Houston Public Works Team

A. Ali

J. Gilleland

C. Living


P. Munive

N. Rahan

M. Siddiqui

D. Chee

R. Hernandez

C. Mallillin


D. Nguyen

Y. Rodriguez

J. Tian

J. Conatto

R. Mills, PE

J. Nguyen


W. Samarneh, PE

P. Zappi, PE

J. Farrell

C. Lepadatu

J. Moor

K. Nguyen


P. Shitabule, PE


Body

Rice University Wastewater Team

E. Lou

L. Bauhs

K. Palmer

R. Carlson-Stadler

W. Rich

P. Kalvapalle

M. Wolken

J. Wu

R. Campos

Body

Rice University Analytics Team

Statistics and Analytics

K. B. Ensor, Ph.D., Lead

J. Schedler, PhD

T. Sun

J. Palacio

K. Britt

Spatial Studies Lab

F. El-Dahdah, PhD

U. Rohrer

Variants and Sequencing

T. Treangen, Ph.D., Lead

Y. Liu, PhD

N. Sapoval

M. Wang