Nancy G. Love

The Love Research Group works at the interface of water, infrastructure and public health in both domestic and global settings. We focus on assessing and advancing public and environmental health using chemical, biological and analytical approaches applied to water systems using both physical experiments and computational models. Through our work, we: evaluate the fate of chemicals, pathogens and contaminants of emerging concern in water with relevance to public health and the environment; use technologies to sense and remove these constituents; and advance technologies that recover useful resources from water. I emphasize interdisciplinarity and critical thinking in students; consequently, many of my students are co-advised across disciplines and sectors and gain a broad range of professional skills in return.

• American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists – Board Certified
• American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
• Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP) – Past President
• International Water Association (IWA)
• Water Environment Federation (WEF)
• Professional Engineer, State of Michigan

Selected Awards:

• Elizabeth Caroline Cosby Grant, 2022
• Rackham Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award, 2022
• Fellow: WEF, IWA, AEESP
• AEESP Distinguished Lecturer, 2015-2016
• WEF Gordon Maskew Fair Distinguished Engineering Educator, 2011
• WEF Rudolfs Industrial Waste Management Medal for noteworthy accomplishments in industrial waste management research, 2008
• Paul L. Busch Award for Innovation in Applied Water Quality Research, 2001
• NSF CAREER Award, 1995
• AAUW Selected Professions Fellow, 1993

Selected Publications:

• Grady, C. P. L. Jr., G. T. Daigger, N. G. Love, C. Filipe. 2011. Biological Wastewater Treatment, 3rd Ed. Taylor and Francis Publishers.
• Delgado Vela, J., G. J. Dick and N. G. Love. 2018. Sulfide inhibition of nitrite oxidation in activated sludge depends on microbial community composition. Water Research. 138:241-249, DOI:10.1016/j.watres.2018.03.047
• Byrne, B. G., S. McColm, S. P. McElmurry, P. E. Kilgore, J. Sobeck, R. Sadler, N. G. Love, M. S. Swanson. 2018. Prevalence of infection-competent serogroup 6 Legionella pneumophila within premise plumbing in Southeast Michigan. mBio, 9(1): DOI: 10.1128/mBio.00016-18.
• Zahran, S., S. P. McElmurry, P. E. Kilgore, D. Mushinski, J. Press, N. G. Love, R. C. Sadler, M. S. Swanson. 2018. Assessment of the Legionnaires’ Disease Outbreak in Flint, Michigan. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 2018. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1718679115
• Goetsch, H. E., L. B. Zhao, M. Gnegy, M. J. Imperiale, N. G. Love, K. R. Wigginton. 2018. The fate of urinary tract virus BK human polyomavirus in source-separated urine. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 84(7): DOI:10.1128/AEM.02374-17
• Stadler, L. B., J. Delgado Vela, S. Jain, G. J. Dick, and N. G. Love. 2017. Elucidating the impact of microbial community biodiversity on pharmaceutical biotransformation during wastewater treatment. Microbial Biotechnology, DOI: 10.1111/1751-7915.12870.
• Troutman, S. C., N. Schambach, N. G. Love and B. Kerkez. 2017. A self-calibrating framework for the sensor-driven and dynamical modeling of combined sewer systems. Water Research, 126:88-100. DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2017.08.065
• Wu, C.-C., S. Ghosh, K. J. Martin, A. J. Pinto, V. J. Denef, T. M. Olson, N. G. Love. 2017. The microbial colonization of activated carbon block point-of-use (PoU) filters with and without chlorinated phenol disinfection byproducts. Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, 2017, DOI: 10.1039/C7EW00134G
• Stadler, L. B. and N. G. Love. 2016. Impact of microbial physiology and microbial community structure on pharmaceutical fate driven by dissolved oxygen concentration in nitrifying bioreactors. Water Research, 104:189-199. DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2016.08.001
• Pinto, A. J. and N. G. Love. 2012. Bioreactor function under perturbation scenarios is affected by interactions between bacteria and protozoa. Environmental Science and Technology, 46:7558-7566. DOI: 10.1021/es301220f
• R. Mesfioui, N. G. Love, D. A. Bronk, M. R. Mulholland, P. G. Hatcher. 2012. Reactivity and chemical characterization of effluent organic nitrogen from wastewater treatment plants determined by Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry. Water Research, 46:622-634. DOI:10.1016/j.watres.2011.11.022
• Khunjar, W. O., S. A. Mackintosh, J. Skotnicka-Pitak, S. Baik, D. S. Aga, N. G. Love. 2011. Elucidating the relative roles of ammonia oxidizing and heterotrophic bacteria during the biotransformation of 17a-ethinylestradiol and trimethoprim. Environmental Science and Technology, 45(8):3605-3612
• Ghosh, S., C. M. Cremers, U. Jakob, and N. G. Love. 2011. Chlorinated phenols control the expression of the multi-drug resistance efflux pump MexAB-OprM in Pseudomonas aeruginosa by activating NalC. Molecular Microbiology, 79:1547-1556
• Bronk, D. A., Q. Roberts, E. Canuel, P. Hatcher, R. Mesfioui, K. C. Filippino, M. R. Mulholland, and N. G. Love. 2010. Effluent organic nitrogen (EON): bioavailability, and photochemical and salinity release. Environmental Science and Technology, 44(15):5830-5835
• Guest, J. S.; S. J. Skerlos, J. L. Barnard, M. B. Beck, G. T. Daigger, H. Hilger, S. J. Jackson, K. Karvazy, L. Kelly, L. Macpherson, J. R. Mihelcic, A. Pramanik, L. Raskin, M. C. M. van Loosdrecht, F. Yeh, N. G. Love. 2009. A new planning and design paradigm to achieve sustainable resource recovery from wastewater. Environmental Science and Technology, 43(16):6126-6130
• Gilmore, K. R., Little, J. C., Smets, B. F. and Love, N. G. 2009. Oxygen Transfer in a flow-through hollow-fiber membrane biofilm reactor. Journal of Environmental Engineering, 135(9):806-814
• Chandran, K. and Love, N. G. 2008. Physiological state, growth mode, and oxidative stress play a role in Cd(II)-mediated inhibition of Nitrosomonas europaea 19718. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 74(8):2447-2453
• Henriques, I. D. S. and Love, N. G. 2007. The role of extracellular polymeric substances in the toxicity response of activated sludge bacteria to chemical toxins. Water Research, 41:4177-4185
• Muller, J. F., Stevens, A. M., Craig, J. and Love, N. G. 2007. Transcriptome analysis reveals multi-drug efflux genes upregulated to protect Pseudomonas aeruginosa from pentachlorophenol stress. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 73(14):4550-4558
• Holbrook, R.D., Novak, J.T. and Love, N.G. 2005. Impact of activated sludge-derived colloidal organic carbon on behavior of estrogenic agonist recombinant yeast bioassay. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 24(11):2717-2724
• Bott, C. B. and Love, N. G. 2004. Implicating the glutathione-gated potassium efflux system as a cause of electrophile-induced activated sludge deflocculation. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 70(9):5569-5578
• Bott, C. B. and Love, N. G. 2001. The immunochemical detection of stress protein expression in activated sludge exposed to toxic chemicals. Water Research, 35:91-100