STEM Shoutout: Dr. Anjali Mulchandani

Engineering professor chosen as a 2021 Women in STEM Award winner

Dr. Anjali Mulchandani, an assistant professor in Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, was selected in June as a 2021 Women in STEM Award winner.

Her project is “Waste as a resource: A thermo-chemical system to recover metals and produce oils from sewage sludges.”

The work explores better ways to get rid of human and industrial waste including through reusing some of it.

“Rather than disposing of these items, we can benefit by seeking more sustainable practices that reuse and recycle these resources and return value to society. In this proposal, I present a paradigm shifting process to implement energy and metals resource recovery at wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs),” Mulchandani wrote in the proposal. 

“There is a critical need for the next generation of wastewater solids management technologies to reduce solids production, manage metals, inactivate pathogens, and incorporate resource recovery perspectives in an environmentally benign, scalable, and economically viable manner,” she said.

Mulchandani said she is excited to continue working on her passion to turn waste into something new.

“I am extremely grateful for this opportunity from the ADVANCE Women in STEM grant. “Waste as a resource” is a motto that has inspired my journey through environmental engineering. I look forward to supporting students, collaborating with wastewater utilities, and continuing research on environmental resource sustainability,” she said.